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神宗欽聖獻肅向皇后、欽成朱皇后、欽慈陳皇后、林賢妃、武賢妃哲宗昭慈孟皇后、昭懷劉皇后徽宗顯恭王皇后、鄭皇后、王貴妃、韋賢妃、喬貴妃、劉貴妃欽宗朱皇后高宗憲節邢皇后、憲聖慈烈吳皇后、潘賢妃、張賢妃、劉貴妃、劉婉儀、張貴妃孝宗成穆郭皇后、成恭夏皇后、成肅謝皇后、蔡貴妃、李賢妃光宗慈懿李皇后、黃貴妃甯宗恭淑韓皇后、恭聖仁烈楊皇后理宗謝皇后度宗全皇后、楊淑妃
The empresses and consorts treated in this volume are: for Shenzong, Empress Qinxian Xiansu Xiang, Empress Qincheng Zhu, Empress Qinci Chen, and the Worthy Consorts Lin and Wu; for Zhezong, Empress Zhaoci Meng and Empress Zhaohuai Liu; for Huizong, Empress Xiangong Wang, Empress Zheng, Imperial Noble Consort Wang, and the Worthy Consorts Wei and Qiao, together with Imperial Consort Liu; for Qinzong, Empress Zhu; for Gaozong, Empress Xianjie Xing, Empress Xiansheng Cilie Wu, the Worthy Consorts Pan and Zhang, Imperial Consort Liu, Honored Lady Liu, and Imperial Noble Consort Zhang; for Xiaozong, Empresses Chengmu Guo, Chenggong Xia, and Chengsu Xie, Imperial Consort Cai, and Worthy Consort Li; for Guangzong, Empress Ciyi Li and Imperial Consort Huang; for Ningzong, Empress Gongshu Han and Empress Gongsheng Renlie Yang; for Lizong, Empress Xie; and for Duzong, Empress Quan and Imperial Concubine Yang Shu.
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欽聖獻肅向皇后
Empress Qinxian Xiansu Xiang
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神宗欽聖憲肅向皇后，河內人，故宰相敏中曾孫也。 治平三年，歸於潁邸，封安國夫人。 神宗即位，立為皇后。
Empress Qinxian Xiansu Xiang, consort of Emperor Shenzong, came from Henei and was a great-granddaughter of the former chief councilor Minzhong. In 1066 she married into the household of the Prince of Ying and received the title Lady of Anguo. When Shenzong ascended the throne, she was made empress.
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帝不豫，后贊宣仁。 后定建儲之議。 哲宗立，尊為皇太后。 宣仁命葺慶壽故宮以居后，后辭曰：「安有姑居西而婦處東，瀆上下之分。」 不敢徙，遂以慶壽後殿為隆祐宮居之。 帝將卜后及諸王納婦，后敕向族勿以女置選中。 族黨有欲援例以恩換閤職，及為選人求京秩者，且言有特旨，后曰：「吾族未省用此例，何庸以私情撓公法。」 一不與。 帝倉卒晏駕，獨決策迎端王。 章惇異議，不能沮。
When the emperor grew gravely ill, the empress backed Empress Dowager Xuanren. It was the empress who settled the question of who should succeed to the throne. When Zhezong came to the throne, she was honored as empress dowager. Empress Dowager Xuanren had the old Qing Shou Palace restored for her to live in, but the empress dowager refused, saying, "How could a mother-in-law take the west wing while a daughter-in-law occupies the east? That would overturn the proper hierarchy." She would not move and instead made her home in the rear hall of Qing Shou, which was designated the Longyou Palace. When the court was about to select an empress and brides for the imperial princes, she ordered her own Xiang clan not to enter their daughters in the competition. Clansmen tried to trade imperial favor for Secretariat posts or to secure metropolitan office for relatives in the examinations, citing a supposed special edict. She replied, "Our family has never relied on such precedents. Why should private ties be allowed to override the law?" She refused every one of them. When the emperor died unexpectedly, she alone resolved to bring Prince Duan to the throne. Zhang Dun objected, but he could not sway her.
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徽宗立，請權同處分軍國事，后以長君辭。 帝泣拜，移時乃聽。 凡紹聖、元符以還，惇所斥逐賢大夫士，稍稍收用之。 故事有如禦正殿、避家諱、立誕節之類，皆不用。 至聞賓召故老、寬徭息兵、愛民崇儉之舉，則喜見於色。 才六月，即還政。
When Huizong took the throne, he asked her to rule jointly with him, but she declined on the ground that he was already a grown emperor. The emperor wept and bowed to her for a long time before she at last agreed. She gradually recalled to office the worthy officials whom Zhang Dun had banished since the Shaosheng and Yuanfu reigns. She declined the usual regal ceremonies—holding court in the Main Hall, observing name taboos, and instituting a birthday festival among them. Whenever she heard that the court was summoning elder statesmen, easing taxes, ending campaigns, caring for the people, or practicing frugality, her delight showed plainly on her face. After only six months she handed power back to him.
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明年正月崩，年五十六。 帝追念不已，乃數加恩兩舅，宗良、宗回，皆位開府儀同三司，封郡王。 而自敏中以上三世，亦追列王爵，非常典也。
She died the following spring at the age of fifty-six. The emperor could not stop mourning her memory and repeatedly honored her two uncles, Zongliang and Zonghui, raising both to Grand Preceptor with Three Excellencies privileges and enfeoffing them as commandery princes. Princely rank was also conferred posthumously on three generations of her forebears above Minzhong—an honor outside normal precedent.
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欽成朱皇后
Empress Qincheng Zhu
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欽成朱皇后，開封人。 父崔傑，早世； 母李，更嫁朱士安。 后鞠于所親任氏。 熙甯初，入宮為禦侍，進才人、婕妤，生哲宗及蔡王似、徐國公主，累進德妃。
Empress Qincheng Zhu came from Kaifeng. Her father Cui Jie died while she was still young; and her mother Li remarried a man named Zhu Shi'an. She was brought up by a relative of the Ren family. Early in the Xining reign she entered the palace as an attendant, rose through Talented Lady and Graceful Beauty, gave birth to the future Zhezong, Prince Cai Si, and the Princess of Xu, and was promoted step by step to Virtuous Consort.
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崇甯元年二月薨，年五十一。 追冊為皇后，上尊諡，陪葬永裕陵。
She died in the second month of 1102, at the age of fifty-one. She was posthumously made empress, granted a posthumous honorific title, and interred beside the Yongyu Mausoleum.
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欽慈陳皇后
Empress Qinci Chen
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林賢妃
Worthy Consort Lin
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武賢妃
Worthy Consort Wu
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武賢妃，始以選入宮。 元豐五年，進才人。 生吳王佖、賢和公主。 曆美人、婕妤。 徽宗即位，進昭儀、賢妃。 大觀元年薨，乘輿臨奠，輟朝三日，諡曰惠穆。
Worthy Consort Wu first entered the palace as a selected candidate. In 1082 she was promoted to Talented Lady. She gave birth to Prince Wu Bian and the Princess Xianhe. She rose through the ranks of Beautiful Lady and Graceful Beauty. When Huizong ascended the throne, she was promoted to Exalted Concubine and then Worthy Consort. She died in 1107. The emperor attended her funeral in person, suspended court for three days, and gave her the posthumous title Huimu.
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昭慈孟皇后
Empress Zhaoci Meng
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哲宗昭慈聖獻孟皇后，洺州人，眉州防禦使、馬軍都虞候、贈太尉元之孫女也。
Empress Zhaoci Shengxian Meng, consort of Emperor Zhezong, came from Mozhou. She was a granddaughter of Yuan, who had served as Defender of Meizhou and Commandant of the Palace Cavalry and was posthumously honored as Grand Marshal.
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初，哲宗既長，宣仁高太后曆選世家女百余入宮。 后年十六，宣仁及欽聖向太后皆愛之，教以女儀。 元祐七年，諭宰執：「孟氏子能執婦禮，宜正位中宮。」 命學士草制。 又以近世禮儀簡略，詔翰林、台諫、給舍與禮官議冊后六禮以進。 至是，命尚書左僕射呂大防攝太尉，充奉迎使，同知樞密院韓忠彥攝司徒副之； 尚書左丞蘇頌攝太尉，充發策使，簽書樞密院事王岩叟攝司徒副之； 尚書右丞蘇轍攝太尉，充告期使，皇叔祖同知大宗正事宗景攝宗正卿副之； 皇伯祖判大宗正事高密郡王宗晟攝太尉，充納成使，翰林學士范百祿攝宗正卿副之； 吏部尚書王存攝太尉，充納吉使，權戶部尚書劉奉世攝宗正卿副之； 翰林學士梁燾攝太尉，充納采、問名使，御史中丞鄭雍攝宗正卿副之。 帝親禦文德殿冊為皇后。 宣仁太后語帝曰：「得賢內助，非細事也。」 進后父閤門祗候在為宗儀使、榮州刺史，母王氏華原郡君。
When Zhezong reached maturity, Empress Dowager Xuanren of the Gao clan had more than a hundred daughters of prominent families brought into the palace for selection. She was sixteen. Both Empress Dowager Xuanren and Empress Dowager Qinsheng Xiang took a liking to her and taught her courtly deportment. In 1092 she told the chief ministers, "The Meng girl knows how to conduct herself as a wife and ought to be made empress." She ordered the Hanlin academicians to draft the installation edict. Because court ritual had grown simplified in recent times, she also ordered the Hanlin Academy, the censorate, remonstrance officials, drafting officers, and ritual specialists to work out the six rites of empress installation and present a plan. She then appointed Left Vice Director Lü Dafang to act as Grand Marshal and head the welcoming mission, with Vice Commissioner of Military Affairs Han Zhongyan acting as Minister of Education as his deputy; Left Assistant Director Su Song to act as Grand Marshal and conduct the questioning rite, with Signatory Wang Yansou of the Bureau of Military Affairs as Minister of Education deputy; Right Assistant Director Su Zhe to act as Grand Marshal and announce the wedding date, with the emperor's great-great-uncle Zong Jing of the Imperial Clan Court as deputy Director of the Imperial Clan Court; the emperor's great-granduncle, Prince of Gaomi Zong Sheng, Director of the Imperial Clan Court, to act as Grand Marshal for the completion rite, with Hanlin Academician Fan Bailu as deputy Director of the Imperial Clan Court; Minister of Personnel Wang Cun to act as Grand Marshal for receiving the auspicious omens, with Acting Minister of Revenue Liu Fengshi as deputy Director of the Imperial Clan Court; and Hanlin Academician Liang Tao to act as Grand Marshal for presenting the betrothal gifts and inquiring after her name, with Censor-in-Chief Zheng Yong as deputy Director of the Imperial Clan Court. The emperor himself presided in the Wende Hall to install her as empress. Empress Dowager Xuanren told the emperor, "To win a worthy consort at your side is no small matter." Her father Zai, a gate attendant, was promoted to Commissioner of Clan Ritual and appointed prefect of Rongzhou, while her mother Lady Wang was ennobled as Lady of Huayuan Commandery.
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久之，劉婕妤有寵。 紹聖三年，后朝景靈宮，訖事，就坐，諸嬪禦立侍，劉獨背立簾下，后閤中陳迎兒呵之，不顧，閤中皆忿。 冬至日，會朝欽聖太后于隆祐宮，后御坐未髹金飾，宮中之制，惟后得之。 婕妤在他坐，有慍色，從者為易坐，制與后等。 眾弗能平，因傳唱曰：「皇太后出！」 后起立，劉亦起，尋各復其所，或已撤婕妤坐，遂僕於地。 懟不復朝，泣訴於帝。 內侍郝隨謂婕妤曰：「毋以此戚戚，願為大家早生子，此坐正當為婕妤有也。」
Before long Graceful Beauty Liu came into favor. In 1096, after the empress had finished worship at the Jingling Shrine and taken her seat, the other consorts stood in attendance while Liu alone turned her back on them beneath the curtain. Chen Ying'er of the empress's staff scolded her, but she ignored the rebuke and the entire inner staff seethed with anger. On the winter solstice they attended Empress Dowager Qinsheng at the Longyou Palace. The empress alone was entitled to a lacquered throne without gilding, a privilege reserved for her in the inner palace. Graceful Beauty Liu sat on a lesser seat and looked resentful, so her attendants replaced it with one matching the empress's in rank. The others could not stomach this and called out, "The empress dowager is coming!" The empress stood up, and Liu stood too. When each returned to her place, Liu's seat had already been taken away and she fell to the floor. Furious, she refused to attend court again and wept her complaint before the emperor. The eunuch Hao Sui told her, "Do not brood on this. If you bear His Majesty a son soon, that seat will rightly be yours."
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會后女福慶公主疾，后有姊頗知醫，嘗已后危疾，以故出入禁掖。 公主藥弗效，持道家治病符水入治。 后驚曰：「姊甯知宮中禁嚴，與外間異邪？」 令左右藏之； 俟帝至，具言其故。 帝曰：「此人之常情耳。」 后即藝符於帝前。 宮禁相汀傳，厭魅之端作矣。 未幾，后養母聽宣夫人燕氏、尼法端與供奉官王堅為后禱祠。 事聞，詔入內押班梁從政、管當禦藥院蘇珪，即皇城司鞫之，捕逮宦者、宮妾幾三十人，搒掠備至，肢體毀折，至有斷舌者。 獄成，命侍御史董敦逸覆錄，罪人過庭下，氣息僅屬，無一人能出聲者。 敦逸秉筆疑未下，郝隨等以言脅之。 敦逸畏禍及己，乃以奏牘上。 詔廢后，出居瑤華宮，號華陽教主、玉清妙靜仙師，法名沖真。
When the empress's daughter, Princess Fuqing, fell ill, her elder sister, who knew medicine and had once saved the empress from a grave illness, was permitted to come and go in the inner palace. When ordinary medicine failed, she brought in Daoist talisman-water to treat the princess. The empress said in alarm, "Sister, do you not know how strict palace rules are and how different they are from the world outside?" She had her attendants hide the talisman; and when the emperor came she told him the whole story. The emperor said, "That is only human nature." The empress then burned the talisman in front of him. Word spread through the inner palace, and the sorcery scandal began. Soon it emerged that her foster mother Lady Yan of Tingxuan, the nun Faduan, and palace attendant Wang Jian had been praying on the empress's behalf. When word reached the throne, Liang Congzheng of the inner staff and Su Gui of the Imperial Pharmacy were ordered to investigate at once in the Imperial City Office. Nearly thirty eunuchs and palace women were arrested, tortured without mercy, their limbs broken, and some even had their tongues cut out. When the case was complete, Attending Censor Dong Dunyi was ordered to review the record. The prisoners were brought before the court barely alive, and not one could utter a word. Dong Dunyi hesitated with brush in hand, and Hao Sui and the others threatened him. Fearing for his own safety, he submitted the memorial. An edict deposed her. She was sent to the Yaohua Palace and given the religious titles Leader of the Huayang Teaching and Transcendent Master of Jade Clarity and Wondrous Stillness, with the dharma name Chongzhen.
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初，章惇誣宣仁后有廢立計，以后逮事宣仁，惇又陰附劉賢妃，欲請建為后，遂與郝隨構成是獄，天下冤之。 敦逸奏言：「中宮之廢，事有所因，情有可察。 詔下之日，天為之陰翳，是天不欲廢后也； 人為之流涕，是人不欲廢后也。」 且言：「嘗覆錄獄事，恐得罪天下後世。」 帝曰：「敦逸不可更在言路。」 曾布曰：「陛下本以皇城獄出於近習推治，故命敦逸錄問，今乃貶錄問官，何以取信中外？」 乃止。 帝久亦悔之，曰：「章惇誤我。」
Zhang Dun had earlier slandered Empress Dowager Xuanren with a charge of plotting deposition and enthronement. Because the empress had long been close to Xuanren, Zhang Dun secretly backed Worthy Consort Liu and hoped to make her empress. He and Hao Sui together fabricated the case, and the empire regarded it as a gross injustice. Dong Dunyi memorialized, "The empress's deposition had its causes, and the circumstances deserve scrutiny. On the day the edict was issued the sky darkened—Heaven did not want her deposed; and people wept for her—mankind did not want her deposed either." He added, "When I reviewed this case I feared earning the condemnation of the empire and of posterity." The emperor said, "Dong Dunyi must no longer serve on the remonstrance track." Zeng Bu said, "Your Majesty had the Imperial City case investigated by close attendants and appointed Dong Dunyi to review it. If you now punish the reviewer, how will the court and the empire trust the outcome?" The emperor relented. In time the emperor came to regret the affair as well and said, "Zhang Dun misled me."
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元符末，欽聖太后將復后位，適有布衣上書，以后為言者，即命以官； 於是詔后還內，號元祐皇后，時劉號元符皇后故也。 崇甯初，郝隨諷蔡京再廢后，昌州判官馮澥上書言后不得復。 台臣錢遹、石豫、左膚等連章論韓忠彥等信一布衣狂言，復己廢之後，以掠虛美，望斷以大義。 蔡京與執政許將、溫益、趙挺之、張商英皆主其說。 徽宗從之，詔依紹聖詔旨，復居瑤華宮，加賜希微元通知和妙靜仙師。
Late in the Yuanfu era Empress Dowager Qinsheng was preparing to restore the empress. A commoner happened to submit a memorial on her behalf and was immediately given an official post; and an edict then brought the empress back into the palace as Empress of Yuanyou, while Liu was styled Empress of Yuanfu. Early in the Chongning era Hao Sui urged Cai Jing to depose her again, and Feng Xi, magistrate of Changzhou, memorialized that she must not be restored. Censors Qian Yi, Shi Yu, Zuo Fu, and others submitted memorial after memorial accusing Han Zhongyan and his allies of trusting a mad commoner's words to restore an empress already deposed, all to win hollow praise, and they urged a principled decision. Cai Jing and the chief ministers Xu Jiang, Wen Yi, Zhao Tingzhi, and Zhang Shangying all sided with them. Huizong agreed. By edict, following the Shaosheng precedent, she was sent back to the Yaohua Palace and given the additional title Transcendent Master of Rare Subtlety, Primordial Communication, Harmonious Accord, and Wondrous Stillness.
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靖康初，瑤華宮火，徙居延甯宮； 又火，出居相國寺前之私第。 金人圍汴，欽宗與近臣議再復后，尊為元祐太后。 詔未下而京城陷。 時六宮有位號者皆北遷，后以廢獨存。 張邦昌僭位尊號為宋太后，迎居延福宮，受百官朝。 胡舜陟、馬伸又言，政事當取后旨。 邦昌乃復上尊號元祐皇后，迎入禁中，垂簾聽政。
Early in the Jingkang era the Yaohua Palace burned, and she moved to the Yanning Palace; when that too burned she left the palace for a private house near the Xiangguo Temple. When the Jurchens besieged Bian, Qinzong and his close advisers debated restoring her once more and honoring her as Empress Dowager of Yuanyou. The edict had not yet been promulgated when the capital fell. By then every consort with a formal rank had been taken north; only the deposed empress remained behind. Zhang Bangchang seized power, styled her Song Empress Dowager, installed her in the Yanfu Palace, and received the court's obeisance. Hu Shunzhi and Ma Shen again urged that state business should take its direction from the empress. Zhang Bangchang restored her as Yuanyou Empress, brought her into the Forbidden City, and set her to rule from behind the curtain.
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后聞康王在濟，遣尚書左右丞馮澥、李回及兄子忠厚持書奉迎。 命副都指揮使郭仲荀將所部扈衛，又命禦營前軍統制張俊逆於道。 尋降手書，播告天下。 王至南京，后遣宗室士㒟及內侍邵成章奉圭寶、乘輿、服禦迎，王即皇帝位，改元，后以是日撤簾，尊后為元祐太后。 尚書省言，「元」字犯后祖名，請易以所居宮名，遂稱隆祐太后。
When she learned that Prince Kang was in Ji, she sent Vice Directors Feng Cao and Li Hui and her nephew Zhonghou with imperial messages to escort him. She tasked Deputy Commander-in-Chief Guo Zhongxun with escorting him at the head of his command and sent Imperial Camp front-army commander Zhang Jun ahead to meet him on the route. She soon issued a personal decree announcing the news to the empire. When Prince Kang reached Nanjing, she sent a royal clansman and the eunuch Shao Chengzhang with the imperial regalia to receive him; he ascended the throne and changed the era name, and that day she stepped down from regency and was honored as Empress Dowager Yuanyou. The Secretariat noted that yuan violated the empress dowager's family naming taboo and asked to substitute her palace name instead, so she was called Empress Dowager Longyou.
23
上將幸揚州，命仲荀衛太后先行，駐揚州州治。 會張浚請先定六宮所居地，遂詔忠厚奉太后幸杭州，以苗傅為扈從統制。 逾年，傅與劉正彥作亂，請太后聽政。 又請立皇子。 太后諭之曰：「自蔡京、王黼更祖宗法，童貫起邊事，致國家禍亂。 今皇帝無失德，止為黃潛善、汪伯彥所誤，皆已逐矣。」 傅等言必立皇太子，太后曰：「今強敵在外，我以婦人抱三歲小兒聽政，將何以令天下？」 傅等泣請，太后力拒之。 帝聞事急，詔禪位元子，太后垂簾聽政。 朱勝非請令臣僚得獨對論機事，仍日引傅黨一人上殿，以釋其疑。 太后從之，每見傅等，曲加慰撫，傅等皆喜。 韓世忠妻梁氏在傅軍中，勝非以計脫之，太后召見，勉令世忠速來，以清岩陛。 梁氏馳入世忠軍，諭太后意。 世忠等遂引兵至，逆黨懼。 朱勝非等誘以復辟，命王世修草狀進呈。 太后喜曰：「吾責塞矣。」 再以手劄趣帝還宮，即欲撤簾。 帝令勝非請太后一出禦殿，乃命撤簾。 是日，上皇太后尊號。
As the emperor prepared to go to Yangzhou, he sent Zhongxun ahead to guard the empress dowager at the prefectural headquarters there. When Zhang Jun urged settling where the inner court would live first, the court ordered Zhonghou to take the empress dowager to Hangzhou, with Miao Fu commanding the escort. A year later Miao Fu and Liu Zhengyan rebelled and demanded that the empress dowager resume rule. They also pressed to install an imperial prince on the throne. The empress dowager told them, "Ever since Cai Jing and Wang Fu rewrote the ancestral institutions and Tong Guan provoked frontier wars, the realm has been thrown into chaos. The present emperor has done nothing wrong; he was merely misled by Huang Qianshan and Wang Boyan, and both have already been dismissed." Fu and his party insisted that a crown prince must be installed. She replied, "With a formidable enemy at our gates, how can I—a woman governing with a three-year-old in my arms—command the empire?" They wept and begged, but she held firm against them. When he learned how dire things were, he abdicated to his eldest son while the empress dowager assumed regency. Zhu Shengfei proposed letting ministers confer privately on strategy while each day summoning one of Miao Fu's followers to court to ease their mistrust. She agreed, and whenever she met Miao Fu and his men she spoke to them with deliberate kindness until they were reassured. Lady Liang, Han Shizhong's wife, was held in Miao Fu's camp; Zhu Shengfei engineered her release, and the empress dowager received her and urged Han Shizhong to hurry back and secure the palace. Lady Liang rode at speed to Han Shizhong's camp and relayed the empress dowager's message. Han Shizhong and his allies then marched in, and the mutineers grew fearful. Zhu Shengfei and his allies tempted them with restoration and had Wang Shixiu draft the memorial to be submitted. The empress dowager exclaimed with relief, "My obligation is fulfilled." She sent another personal note pressing him to return and prepared at once to end her regency. The emperor had Shengfei ask her to appear once in the main hall before he ordered the curtain drawn back. That same day she was granted a formal empress-dowager honorific.
24
太后聞張浚忠義，欲一見之，帝為召浚至禁中。 承議郎馮楫嘗貽書苗傅勸復辟，上未之知，太后白其事，楫得遷秩。
Having heard of Zhang Jun's loyalty, she wished to meet him, and the emperor had him brought into the palace. Feng Ji, a civil official, had secretly urged Miao Fu to restore the emperor; when the empress dowager exposed this to Gaozong, Feng was actually promoted.
25
帝幸建康，命簽書樞密院事鄭玨衛太后繼發，比至，帝率群臣迎於郊。 會防秋迫，命劉寧止制置江、浙，衛太后往洪州，百司非預軍事者悉從。 仍命滕康、劉玨權知三省樞密院事從行，凡四方奏讞、吏部差注、舉辟、功賞之類，皆隸焉。 復命四廂都指揮使楊惟忠，將兵萬人衛從。 帝慮敵人來侵，密諭康、玨緩急取太后旨，便宜以行。 過落星寺，舟覆，宮人溺死者十數，惟太后舟無虞。
Gaozong moved to Jiankang and sent Zheng Jue to escort the empress dowager; when she arrived, he and the entire court met her outside the city. With the autumn defense season pressing, Liu Ningzhi was made commissioner for Jiang and Zhe to guard the empress dowager on her journey to Hongzhou, and every civil office not tied to the war effort went with her. Teng Kang and Liu Jue were also assigned to handle the Three Departments and Privy Council on the road, so memorials, legal cases, personnel appointments, recommendations, and rewards all passed through them. Yang Weizhong, commander of the four palace-corps divisions, was also told to escort her with ten thousand troops. Fearing a Jin attack, he secretly told Kang and Jue to follow the empress dowager's orders in any crisis and act on their own authority as needed. Near Luoxing Temple a boat overturned and a dozen palace women drowned; the empress dowager's vessel alone escaped harm.
26
既至洪州，議者言：「金人自蘄、黃渡江，陸行二百餘里，即到洪州。」 帝憂之，命劉光世屯江州。 光世不為備，金人遂自大冶縣徑趣洪州。 康、玨奉太后行，次吉州。 金人追急，太后乘舟夜行。 質明，至太和縣，舟人景信反，楊惟忠兵潰，失宮人一百六十，康、玨俱遁，兵衛不滿百，遂往虔州。 太后及潘妃以農夫肩輿而行。 帝慮太后徑入閩、廣，遣使曆詢后所在，及知在虔州，遂命中書舍人李正民來朝謁。
Once she reached Hongzhou, advisers warned that if the Jin crossed from Qi and Huang and marched overland a little more than two hundred li, they would be upon the city." Alarmed, the emperor ordered Liu Guangshi to hold Jiangzhou. Guangshi failed to prepare, and the Jin drove straight for Hongzhou from Daye County. Kang and Jue escorted her onward and paused at Jizhou. With the Jin closing in, she fled by boat under cover of night. By dawn they reached Taihe, where the boatman Jing Xin mutinied; Yang Weizhong's force collapsed, 160 palace women were lost, Kang and Jue deserted, and with fewer than 100 guards they fled to Qianzhou. The empress dowager and Worthy Consort Pan were borne along in sedan chairs carried by local farmers. Fearing she might press on into Fujian or Guangdong, he sent messengers to trace her; learning she was at Qianzhou, he dispatched Li Zhengmin of the Secretariat to attend her.
27
時虔州府庫皆空，衛軍所給，惟得沙錢，市買不售，與百姓交鬥，縱火肆掠。 土豪陳新率眾圍城，康、玨、惟忠弗能禁。 惟忠步將胡友自外引兵破新於城下，新乃去。 帝聞，罷康、玨，命盧益、李回代之。 諭輔臣曰：「朕初不識太后，自迎至南京，愛朕不啻己出。 今在數千里外，兵馬驚擾，當亟奉迎，以愜朕朝夕慕念之意。」 遂遣禦營司都統辛企宗、帶禦器械潘永思迎歸。 太后至越，帝親迎於行宮門外，遍問所過守臣治狀。
Qianzhou's treasuries were empty, the guards were paid only in debased coin that merchants would not take, and they brawled with civilians before looting and burning at will. A local magnate named Chen Xin led a mob to besiege the city, and Kang, Jue, and Weizhong proved unable to stop them. Weizhong's infantry commander Hu You brought troops from outside and routed Chen Xin below the walls, and Chen withdrew. On learning this, the emperor removed Kang and Jue and replaced them with Lu Yi and Li Hui. He told his ministers, "I did not know the empress dowager at first; from the day I welcomed her at Nanjing she has loved me as if I were her own son. Now she is thousands of li away in the turmoil of war—I must bring her back at once to ease my constant longing." He then sent Imperial Camp commander Xin Qizong and arms-bearing attendant Pan Yongsi to escort her home. When she reached Yue, the emperor met her in person outside the traveling palace and asked in detail how the officials along the route had governed.
28
入宮禁中，嘗微苦風眩。 有宮人自言善符呪，疾良已。 太后驚曰：「仁吾豈敢復聞此語耶！」 立命出之。 太后生辰，置酒宮中，從容謂帝曰：「宣仁太后之賢，古今母后未有其比。 昔奸臣肆為謗誣，雖嘗下詔明辨，而國史尚未刪定，豈足傳信？ 吾意在天之靈，不無望於帝也。」 帝聞之悚然。 后乃更修《神宗》、《哲宗實錄》，始得其正，而奸臣情狀益著。
Once inside the palace she suffered a mild bout of vertigo. A palace woman claimed skill in charms and incantations, and she recovered quickly. The empress dowager exclaimed in alarm, "After Empress Dowager Xuanren, how could I dare hear such talk again!" She immediately ordered the woman expelled. On her birthday she set out wine in the palace and remarked to the emperor at leisure, "Empress Dowager Xuanren's virtue—no empress mother in history has ever matched it. Wicked ministers once spread slanders against her; though an edict once clarified the truth, the National History has never been corrected—is that enough to restore her reputation? Surely her spirit in Heaven still looks to you for justice." The emperor shuddered when he heard this. She then had the Veritable Records of Shenzong and Zhezong revised, at last setting the record straight and exposing the wicked ministers all the more clearly.
29
帝事太后極孝，雖帷帳皆親視； 或得時果，必先獻太后，然後敢嘗。 宣教郎范燾與忠厚有憾，誣與太后密養欽宗子。 帝曰：「朕于太后如母子，安得有此。」 即治其罪。 紹興五年春，患風疾，帝旦暮不離左右，衣弗解帶者連夕。
The emperor served her with the utmost filial devotion, even tending her curtains and bedding himself; and whenever he received seasonal fruit he offered it to her first and only then tasted it himself. Fan Tao, a civil official who bore a grudge against Zhonghou, falsely accused them of secretly raising a son of Emperor Qinzong on the empress dowager's behalf. The emperor said, "Between the empress dowager and me it is like mother and son—how could such a thing exist?" He had the accuser punished at once. In the spring of 1135 she fell ill with a wind disorder; the emperor never left her side day or night and went several nights without unfastening his belt.
30
四月，崩於行宮之西殿，年五十九。 遺命擇地攢殯，俟軍事寧，歸葬園陵。 帝詔曰：「朕以繼體之重，當從重服，凡喪祭用母后臨朝禮。」 上尊號曰昭慈獻烈皇太后，推恩外家凡五十人。 殯於會稽上皇村，附神主於哲宗室，位在昭懷皇后上。 三年，改諡昭慈聖獻。
In the fourth month she died in the west hall of the traveling palace at the age of fifty-nine. Her will directed that a site be chosen for temporary enshrinement until the war ended, then that she be returned for burial in the imperial necropolis. The emperor decreed, "Given the weight of my succession, I shall observe the fullest mourning and use for all funeral rites the protocol for an empress mother who ruled from behind the curtain." She was given the posthumous title Empress Dowager Zhaoci Xianlie, and favors were extended to fifty members of her maternal family. She was temporarily enshrined at Shanghuang Village in Kuaiji, her spirit tablet placed in Zhezong's shrine above Empress Zhaohuai. Three years later her posthumous title was changed to Zhaoci Shengxian.
31
后性節儉謙謹，有司月供千緡而止。 幸南昌，斥賣私絹三千匹充費。 尋詔文書應奏者避后父名，不許； 群臣請上太皇太后號，亦不許。 忠厚直顯謨閣，台諫、給舍交章論列，后聞，即令易武，命學士院降詔，戒敕忠厚等不得預聞朝政、通貴近、至私第謁見宰執。 以恩澤當得官者近八十員，后未嘗陳請。
She was frugal and modest by nature, and the offices allotted her only a thousand strings of cash each month. On her journey to Nanchang she sold three thousand bolts of her own silk to cover expenses. Soon an edict ordered memorials to avoid her father's name, but she refused to allow it; and when the court asked to honor her as Grand Empress Dowager, she again refused. When Zhonghou was promoted to the Zhimou Pavilion, censors and drafting officials protested in a stream of memorials; hearing of it, she immediately shifted him to a military post and had the Hanlin Academy issue an edict forbidding Zhonghou and his like from meddling in politics, cultivating the powerful, or calling on chief ministers at home. Nearly eighty relatives were entitled to offices through imperial favor, yet she never once petitioned for them.
32
初，后受冊日，宣仁太后歎曰：「斯人賢淑，惜福薄耳！ 異日國有事變，必此人當之。」 后皆如所云。
When she was first invested, Empress Dowager Xuanren sighed and said, "This woman is virtuous and gentle, yet her allotted fortune is slight! When the realm faces crisis hereafter, it will surely fall to her to bear it." Everything that followed proved her words true.
33
昭懷劉皇后
Empress Zhaohuai Liu
34
昭懷劉皇后，初為禦侍，明豔冠後庭，且多才藝。 由美人、婕妤進賢妃。 生一子二女。 有盛寵，能順意奉兩宮。 時孟后位中宮，后不循列妾禮，且陰造奇語以售謗，內侍郝隨、劉友端為之用。 孟后既廢，后竟代焉。 右正言鄒浩上疏極諫，坐竄。 徽宗立，冊為元符皇后。 明年，尊為太后，名宮崇恩。 帝緣哲宗故，曲加恩禮，后以是頗干預外事，且以不謹聞。 帝與輔臣議，將廢之，而后已為左右所逼，即簾鉤自縊而崩，年三十五。
Empress Zhaohuai Liu began as an imperial attendant; her beauty outshone every woman in the inner quarters, and she was accomplished in many arts. She rose from Beautiful Lady and Brilliant Lady to Worthy Consort. She bore one son and two daughters. She enjoyed great favor and knew how to please both the empress and the empress dowager. While Empress Meng occupied the central palace, Liu refused the etiquette proper to a concubine and secretly invented bizarre stories to spread slander, aided by the eunuchs Hao Sui and Liu Youduan. After Empress Meng was deposed, Liu finally took her place. Zou Hao, a remonstrance official, submitted a fierce memorial of protest and was exiled for it. When Huizong ascended the throne she was installed as Yuanfu Empress. The following year she was honored as empress dowager, her residence named the Palace of Chong'en. Out of regard for Zhezong the emperor showed her extraordinary favor, and she began to meddle in outside affairs until reports of misconduct reached him. The emperor consulted his ministers about deposing her, but those around her had already pressed her to hang herself from a curtain hook; she died at thirty-five.
35
顯恭王皇后
Empress Xiangong Wang
36
徽宗顯恭王皇后，開封人，德州刺史藻之女也。 元符二年六月，歸於端邸，封順國夫人。 徽宗即位，冊為皇后。 生欽宗及崇國公主。 后性恭儉，鄭、王二妃方亢寵，后待之均平。 巨閹妄意迎合，誣以暗昧。 帝命刑部侍郎周鼎即秘獄參驗，略無一跡，獄止。 后見帝，未嘗一語輒及，帝幡然憐之。 大觀二年崩，年二十五。 諡曰靜和，葬裕陵之次。 紹興中，始附徽宗廟室，改上今諡云。
Empress Xiangong Wang of Emperor Huizong came from Kaifeng and was the daughter of Zao, prefect of Dezhou. In the sixth month of 1099 she entered the household of the Heir Apparent and was enfeoffed Lady of Shunguo. When Huizong ascended the throne she was made empress. She bore Emperor Qinzong and Princess Chongguo. She was respectful and frugal by nature; when Consorts Zheng and Wang were at the height of favor she treated them with impartial fairness. A powerful eunuch tried to curry favor by falsely accusing her of secret misconduct. The emperor ordered Vice Minister of Justice Zhou Ding to investigate at once in the secret prison; no evidence was found, and the case was dropped. Whenever she met the emperor she never mentioned the accusation; struck with remorse, he pitied her. She died in 1108, at the age of twenty-five. She was given the posthumous name Jinghe and interred next to Yuling, Emperor Huizong's mausoleum. During the Shaoxing period she was first given a place in Huizong's ancestral shrine, when her present posthumous title was bestowed.
37
鄭皇后
Empress Zheng
38
鄭皇后，開封人也。 父紳，始為直省官，以后貴，累封太師、樂平郡王。
Empress Zheng came from Kaifeng. Her father Shen began as a direct secretariat official; once she rose in rank he was repeatedly promoted to Grand Preceptor and Prince of Leping.
39
后本欽聖殿押班，徽宗為端王，每日朝慈德宮，欽聖命鄭、王二押班供侍。 及即位，遂以二人賜之。 后自入宮，好觀書，章奏能自製，帝愛其才。 崇甯初，封賢妃，迂貴妃有異寵。 徽宗多賚以詞章，天下歌之。
She had originally served as a ward leader in the Qinsheng Hall. While Huizong was still Prince of Duan he paid daily court at Cide Palace, and Empress Qinsheng assigned the ward leaders Zheng and Wang to wait on him. After his accession he took both women into his own household as consorts. Once she entered the palace she loved books and could compose memorials on her own; the emperor prized her ability. At the beginning of the Chongning era she was made Virtuous Consort and soon advanced to Noble Consort, enjoying extraordinary favor. Huizong frequently gifted her his own verse, and people throughout the empire celebrated the affair in song.
40
欽宗受禪，尊為太上皇后，遷居甯德宮，稱甯德太后。 從上皇幸南京，金師退，先歸。 時用事者言，上皇將復辟於鎮江，人情危駭。 或謂后將由端門直入禁中，內侍輩頗勸欽宗嚴備。 帝不從，出郊迎后，於是兩宮歡甚洽。 上皇聞之，即罷如洛之議。
When Qinzong accepted the throne she was elevated to Grand Empress, installed in Ningde Palace, and addressed as Grand Empress Dowager of Ningde. She followed the Retired Emperor to Nanjing and came back ahead of him once the Jin forces had pulled away. Men then holding power claimed the Retired Emperor would reclaim the throne at Zhenjiang, and the people were thrown into fear. Rumors held that she would march into the inner palace through the Duanyang Gate, and the palace eunuchs pressed Qinzong to mount a heavy guard. He refused to heed them and rode out to meet her in person, after which relations between the two courts grew warm and easy. Learning of this, the Retired Emperor at once dropped the proposal to withdraw to Luoyang.
41
汴京破，從上皇幸青城。 北遷，留五年，崩于五國城，年五十二。 紹興七年，何蘇等使還，始知上皇及后崩，高宗大慟。 詔立重成服，諡顯肅。 后親族各遷官有差。 祔主徽宗室，以聞哀日為大忌。 梓宮歸，入境，承之以槨，納翬衣其中，與徽宗各攢於會稽永佑陵。
After the fall of Bianjing she followed the Retired Emperor to Qingcheng. Carried into captivity in the north, she stayed five years and died at Wuguo Cheng at the age of fifty-two. In 1137, when He Su and his fellow envoys came home, the court first learned that the Retired Emperor and the empress dowager were dead; Gaozong was overcome with grief. An edict set the full mourning observances and gave her the posthumous name Xiansu. Members of her clan were promoted in office, each according to his degree of kinship. Her spirit tablet was placed in Huizong's shrine, and the day the mourning news arrived was observed as the principal death anniversary. When her remains were brought back into Song territory they were laid in an outer coffin with her feathered court robes inside, and she and Huizong were separately interred at Yongyou Mausoleum in Kuaiji.
42
先是，后至金營，訴於粘罕曰：「妾得罪當行，但妾家屬不預朝政，乞留不遣。」 粘罕許之，故紳得歸。 后既行，紳亦以是年薨，諡僖靖。 家屬流寓江南，高宗憐之，詔所在尋訪賜官。 有鄭藻者，后近屬也。 紹興中帶禦器械用后祔廟恩，拜隴州防禦使； 凡四使金，曆官至保信軍節度使，加太尉。 卒，追封榮國公，諡端靖。
Before this, upon reaching the Jin camp she appealed to Nianhan: "I have offended and must go, but my relatives never took part in government; please let them stay and not be sent away." Nianhan consented, and so Shen was allowed to return. Once she had gone north, Shen died the same year and was posthumously titled Xijing. Her kin were scattered in exile across the south; Gaozong took pity on them and ordered local authorities to find them and award offices. Among them was Zheng Zao, a near kinsman of the empress. During Shaoxing, as a Palace Armorer he benefited from the favor granted when she entered the ancestral shrine and was made Defender of Longzhou; he served four missions to the Jin in all, rose to military commissioner of the Baoxin army, and was named Grand Marshal. When he died he was posthumously created Duke of Rong and given the posthumous name Duanjing.
43
王貴妃
Imperial Noble Consort Wang
44
韋賢妃
Virtuous Consort Wei
45
韋賢妃，開封人，高宗母也。 初入宮，為侍禦。 崇甯末，封平昌郡君。 大觀初，進婕妤，累遷婉容。 高宗在康邸出使，進封龍德宮賢妃。 從上皇北遷。 建炎改元，遙尊為宣和皇后。 封其父安道為郡王，官親屬三十人。 由是遣使不絕。
Virtuous Consort Wei of Kaifeng was the mother of Emperor Gaozong. On entering the palace she began as a palace attendant. Near the end of the Chongning era she was created Lady of Pingchang. At the start of the Daguan reign she was raised to Shining Beauty and later advanced step by step to Graceful Countenance. While Gaozong was still at the Prince of Kang's residence on an imperial mission, she was promoted to Virtuous Consort of Longde Palace. She followed the Retired Emperor into captivity in the north. With the proclamation of the Jianyan era she was honored from afar as Empress Xuanhe. Her father Andao was created a prince of a commandery, and thirty relatives were granted posts. After that the court dispatched envoys in an unbroken stream.
46
紹興七年，徽宗及鄭皇后崩聞至，帝號慟，諭輔臣曰：「宣和皇后春秋高，朕思之不遑甯處，屈己請和，正為此耳。」 翰林學士朱震引唐建中故事，請遙尊為皇太后，從之。 已而太常少卿吳表臣請依嘉祐、治平故事，俟三年喪畢，然後舉行。 乃先降禦劄，播告天下。 后三代俱追封王。
In 1137, when word came that Huizong and Empress Zheng had died, the emperor cried aloud and told his ministers: "Empress Xuanhe is old; I cannot rest for thinking of her, and it is chiefly for her sake that I have stooped to seek peace." Hanlin academician Zhu Zhen cited the Tang precedent of the Jianzhong era and asked that she be honored from afar as empress dowager, and the request was granted. Later Vice Minister of Rites Wu Biaochen urged that, following the Jiayou and Zhiping models, the ceremony wait until the three-year mourning had ended. An imperial rescript was therefore issued at once and announced throughout the empire. Three generations of her ancestors were posthumously created princes.
47
帝以后久未歸，每顰蹙曰：「金人若從朕請，餘皆非所問也。」 王倫使回，言金人許歸后。 未幾，金人遣蕭哲來，亦言后將歸狀。 遂豫作慈甯宮，命莫將、韓恕為奉迎使。 十年，以金人猶未歸后，乃遙上皇太后冊寶于慈寧殿。 是後，生辰、至、朔，皆遙行賀禮。
As she still had not come home, the emperor would frown and say: "If the Jin would do this one thing for me, I would want nothing more." When Wang Lun returned from his mission he reported that the Jin had promised to send the empress dowager back. Soon afterward the Jin dispatched Xiao Zhe, who likewise said she would be returning. Cining Palace was therefore readied ahead of time, and Mo Jiang and Han Shu were named reception envoys. In 1140, since the Jin had still not released her, the empress dowager's seal and regalia were ceremonially offered from afar in Cining Hall. Thereafter her birthday, the solstices, and the first day of each month were all celebrated with distant congratulatory ceremonies.
48
洪皓在燕，求得后書，遣李微持歸。 帝大喜曰：「遣使百輩，不如一書。」 遂加微官。 金人遣蕭毅、邢具瞻來議和，帝曰：「朕有天下，而養不及親。 徽宗無及矣！ 今立誓信，當明言歸我太后，朕不恥和，不然，朕不憚用兵。」 毅等還，帝又語之曰：「太后果還，自當謹守誓約； 如其未也，雖有誓約，徒為虛文。」
While detained in Yan, Hong Hao secured a letter from her and sent Li Wei to carry it home. The emperor rejoiced and said: "A hundred embassies are worth less than a single letter." Li Wei was promptly rewarded with a promotion. The Jin dispatched Xiao Yi and Xing Juzhan to discuss peace; the emperor said: "I hold the empire but cannot care for my mother. Nothing can be done for Huizong now! In making this sworn pact you must plainly promise to return my empress dowager; I am not ashamed to sue for peace, but otherwise I will not shrink from war." When Yi and his party came back the emperor told them again: "If the empress dowager truly returns, I will faithfully uphold the treaty; if she does not, then whatever oaths we write will be nothing but empty paper."
49
命何鑄、曹勳報謝，召至內殿，諭之曰：「朕北望庭闈，無淚可揮。 卿見金主，當曰：'慈親之在上國，一老人耳； 在本國，則所系甚重。 '以至誠說之，庶彼有感動。」 鑄等至金國，首以后歸為請。 金主曰：「先朝業已如此，豈可輒改？」 勳再三懇請，金主始允。 鑄等就館，館伴耶律紹文來信，金主許從所請。 洪皓聞之，先遣人來報。 鑄等還，具言其實。 遂命參政王次翁為奉迎使。 金人遣其臣高居安、完顏宗賢等扈從以行。
He sent He Zhu and Cao Xun back with his thanks, called them into the inner hall, and said: "I gaze north toward my parents and have no tears left to shed. When you see the Jin emperor tell him this: "My dear mother in your land is only an old woman; in our country she means everything to the throne. Plead with all your heart, so that perhaps they will be moved." When He Zhu and his colleagues arrived in Jin territory their first demand was her release. The Jin emperor replied: "What the previous dynasty decided is already settled—how can it be changed at will?" Cao Xun pressed the point again and again until the Jin ruler at last agreed. While He Zhu and his party were lodged there, their Jin host Yelü Shaowen sent word that the emperor had granted the request. Hong Hao learned of it and dispatched a messenger ahead with the news. He Zhu and his colleagues returned and gave a full account. Vice Grand Councilor Wang Ciweng was then named chief reception envoy. The Jin dispatched Gao Ju'an, Wanyan Zongxian, and other officials to escort her on the road.
50
十二年四月，次燕山，自東平舟行，由清河至楚州。 既渡淮，命太后弟安樂郡王韋淵、秦魯國大長公主、吳國長公主迎于道。 帝親至臨平奉迎，普安郡王、宰執、兩省、三衙管軍皆從。 帝初見太后，喜極而泣。 八月，至臨安，入居慈甯宮。
In the fourth month of 1142 they halted at Yanshan, then went by boat from Dongping down the Qing River to Chuzhou. After she crossed the Huai, he sent her younger brother, Prince of Anle Wei Yuan, together with the Grand Princess of Qin and Lu and the Princess of Wu, to meet her along the route. Gaozong himself went to Linping to receive her, accompanied by the Prince of Pu'an, the chief ministers, both palace secretariats, and the commanders of the Three Offices. When he first saw her again he wept with joy. In the eighth month she arrived at Lin'an and took up residence in Cining Palace.
51
先是，以梓宮未還，詔中外輟樂。 至是，慶太后壽節，始用樂。 謁家廟，親屬遷官幾二千人。
Previously, while the imperial coffins were still abroad, an edict had suspended music throughout the court and the realm. Now, to mark her birthday, music was played for the first time. She worshiped at the imperial ancestral temple, and close to two thousand of her relatives were promoted in rank.
52
太后聰明有智慮。 初，金人許還三梓宮，太后恐其反覆，呼役者畢集，然后起攢。 時方暑，金人憚行，太后慮有他變，乃陽稱疾，須秋涼進發。 已而稱貸于金使，得黃金三千兩以犒其眾，由是途中無間言。 太后在北方，聞韓世忠名，次臨平，呼世忠至簾前慰勞。 還宮，帝侍太后，或至夜分未去，太后曰：「且休矣，聽朝宜早，恐妨萬幾。」 又嘗謂：「兩宮給使，宜令通用； 不然，則有彼我之分，而佞人間言易以入也。」
She was clever and far-sighted. When the Jin first agreed to send back the three coffins she feared they might go back on their word, so she gathered every worker on the spot before allowing the remains to be coffined. The season was hot and the Jin escorts were reluctant to march; suspecting further trouble, she pretended to be ill and insisted they wait until the weather turned cool. She then borrowed three thousand taels of gold from the Jin envoys to reward their men, and so the journey passed without a murmur of complaint. In captivity she had heard of Han Shizhong; when the procession paused at Linping she summoned him before her screen to praise and comfort him. After her return the emperor waited on her, sometimes staying until deep into the night; she would say: "That is enough—attend court early tomorrow, lest the myriad affairs of state suffer." She also remarked: "The servants of the two palaces ought to serve both alike; otherwise you create a yours-and-mine divide, and sycophants will find it easy to sow trouble between you."
53
時皇后未立，太后屢為帝言，帝請降手書，太后曰：「我但知家事，外庭非所當預。」 將行冊命，承平典禮，悉能記之。 帝先意承志，惟恐不及，或一食稍減，輒不勝憂懼。 常戒宮人曰：「太后年已六十，惟優遊無事，起居適意，即壽考康寧； 事有所闕，懼母令太后知，第來白朕。」
The empress had still not been appointed, and the empress dowager often raised the matter with the emperor; he asked her to issue a personal edict, but she replied: "I understand only family matters; the outer court is no concern of mine." When the installation rites were prepared, she remembered every detail of the ceremonies from the peaceful years. He tried to read her mind and dreaded disappointing her; if she ate even a little less at one meal he was overcome with anxiety. He often warned the palace women: "The empress dowager is already sixty; let her wander at leisure with nothing to trouble her, and keep her daily life comfortable—that is how she will live long and well; if anything goes wrong, do not let Mother hear of it and worry her—report to me first."
54
十九年，太后年七十，正月朔，即宮中行慶壽禮，親屬各遷官一等。 太后微恙，累月不出殿門，會牡丹盛開，帝入白，太后欣然步至花所，因留宴，竟日盡歡。 忌日，以諭宰執。 后苦目疾，募得醫皇甫坦，治即愈。
In 1149, when she turned seventy, a birthday celebration was held in the palace on the first day of the first month, and every relative was promoted one rank. She had been mildly unwell and had not stepped outside her hall for months; when the peonies came into full bloom the emperor came in to tell her, and she happily walked out to the flowers, stayed for a feast, and rejoiced the whole day long. On days of mourning commemoration she took the opportunity to admonish the chief ministers. She was troubled by an eye ailment; a doctor named Huangfu Tan was found, and once he treated her she recovered at once.
55
二十九年，太后壽登八十，復行慶禮。 親屬進官一等； 庶人等九十、宗子女若貢士已上父母年八十者，悉官封之。 九月，得疾，上不視朝，敕輔臣祈禱天地、宗廟、社稷，赦天下，減租稅。 俄崩于慈甯宮，諡曰顯仁。 攢於永佑陵之西，祔神主太廟徽宗室。 親屬進秩者十四人，授官者三人。
In 1159, when she turned eighty, the court again held longevity celebration ceremonies. Her relatives were each promoted one rank in office; all commoners aged ninety, and all offspring of the imperial clan or of Presented Scholars and above whose parents had reached eighty, were granted official titles and honorary seals. In the ninth month she took ill; the emperor ceased holding court and ordered his chief ministers to pray at the temples of Heaven, Earth, the imperial ancestors, and the state altars; he declared an empire-wide amnesty and cut rents and taxes. Before long she died in Cining Palace and was given the posthumous epithet Xianren. She was interred west of Yongyou Mausoleum, and her spirit tablet was placed in Huizong's shrine in the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Fourteen of her kin were advanced in rank and three were appointed to office.
56
太后性節儉，有司進金唾壺，太后易，令用塗金。 宮中賜予不過三數千，所得供進財帛，多積於庫。 至是，喪葬之費，皆仰給焉。 然好佛、老。 初，高宗出使，有小妾言，見四金甲人執刀劍以衛。 太后曰：「我祠四聖謹甚，必其陰助。」 既北遷，常設祭； 及歸，立祠西湖上。
The empress dowager was naturally thrifty: when officials offered her a solid gold spittoon, she had it swapped for a gilded one. Her gifts within the palace rarely exceeded a few thousand cash, and most of the valuables and silks presented to her were hoarded in the storehouses. When she died, the entire cost of her funeral was met from those savings. Yet she was devoted to Buddhism and Daoism. Long before, when Gaozong was sent on a diplomatic mission, a concubine of his reported seeing four warriors in golden armor bearing swords to protect him. The empress dowager said, "I worship the Four Sages most devoutly; they must be aiding him from afar. After the court fled north she continued to hold sacrifices for them; and once they returned south she built a shrine for them on West Lake.
57
喬貴妃
Worthy Consort Qiao
58
喬貴妃，初與高宗母韋妃俱侍鄭皇后，結為姊妹，約先貴者毋相忘。 既而貴妃得幸徽宗，遂引韋氏，二人愈相得。 二帝北遷，貴妃與韋氏俱。 至是，韋妃將還，貴妃以金五十兩贈高居安，曰：「薄物不足為禮，願好護送姊還江南。」 復舉酒酌韋氏曰：「姊善重保護，歸即為皇太后； 妹無還期，終死於朔漠矣！」 遂大慟以別。
Worthy Consort Qiao had first served Empress Zheng alongside Gaozong's mother, Lady Wei; the two became sworn sisters and agreed that whichever of them won favor first would not forget the other. When the consort later won Huizong's favor she brought Lady Wei to court, and the bond between the two women grew still stronger. When the two captive emperors were marched north, the consort and Lady Wei shared the ordeal. When Lady Wei was finally to be sent home, the consort gave Gao Ju'an fifty taels of gold, saying, "This is a poor token, but see that you escort my elder sister safely back to Jiangnan. She raised another cup to Lady Wei and said, "Sister, guard your health on the journey; once you are home you will be empress dowager at once; but I shall never return and will die in the northern wastes! They then took leave of one another amid loud lamentation.
59
劉貴妃
Imperial Consort Liu
60
劉貴妃，其出單微。 入宮，即大幸，由才人七遷至貴妃。 生濟陽郡王棫、祁王模、信王榛。 政和三年秋，薨。
Imperial Consort Liu came from a family of the lowest standing. No sooner had she entered the palace than she won extraordinary favor, advancing through seven ranks from Talented Lady to Imperial Consort. She bore the Princes of Jiyang, Qi, and Xin—Shu, Mo, and Zhen. She died in the autumn of 1113, the third year of the Zhenghe reign.
61
先是，妃手植芭蕉於庭曰：「是物長，吾不及見矣！」 已而果然。 左右奔千告帝，帝初以其微疾，不經意，趣幸之，已薨矣，始大悲惻。 特加緊四字諡曰明達懿文。 敘其平生，弦諸樂府。 又欲踵溫成故事追崇，使皇后表請，因冊贈為后，而以明達諡焉。
Earlier she had planted a banana tree in the courtyard, saying, "By the time this grows tall I shall no longer be alive to see it! Events unfolded exactly as she had foretold. Servants rushed to tell the emperor, but he at first treated it as a passing ailment and hurried to her side only to find her already dead; then he was stricken with the deepest grief. She was uniquely honored with the four-character posthumous name Mingda Yiwen. Her life story was versified and entered into the palace repertoire. Huizong also wished to follow the precedent of Worthy Consort Wen Cheng and elevate her posthumously, so he had the empress petition on his behalf; she was then canonized as empress under the posthumous name Mingda.
62
時又有安妃劉氏者，本酒保家女。 初事崇轉宮，宮罷，出居宦者何聽家。 內侍楊戩譽其美，復召入。 妃以同姓養為女，遂有寵，為才人，進至淑妃。 生建安郡王楧、嘉國公椅、英國公楒、和福帝姬。 政和四年，加貴妃。 朝夕得侍上，擅愛顓席，嬪禦為之稀進。 擢其父劉宗元節度使。
About the same time there was also Worthy Consort An, née Liu, originally the daughter of a tavern keeper. She had first served in Chongzhuan Palace; when that establishment was shut she lived with the eunuch He Ting. The palace eunuch Yang Zhan commended her beauty and she was recalled. Imperial Consort Liu adopted her as a daughter on account of their common surname; she thus gained favor, rose to Talented Lady, and was promoted to Shuyi. She bore the Prince of Jian'an, Chuan; the Duke of Jia, Yi; the Duke of Ying, Si; and Princess Hefu. In 1114 she was raised to Imperial Consort. She attended the emperor day and night, kept his company to herself, and the other palace women rarely saw him. Her father Liu Zongyuan was made a military commissioner.
63
欽宗朱皇后
Empress Zhu of Emperor Qinzong
64
欽宗朱皇后，開封祥符人。 父伯材，武康軍節度使。 欽宗在東宮，徽宗臨軒備禮，冊為皇太子妃。 欽宗即位，立為皇后。 追封伯材為恩平郡王。 后既北遷，不知崩聞。 慶元三年上尊號，諡仁懷，祔於太廟欽宗室，推恩后家十五人。 五年，奉安神禦于景靈宮。
Empress Zhu of Emperor Qinzong came from Xiangfu in Kaifeng. Her father, Bo Cai, served as military commissioner of Wukang Army. While Qinzong was still heir apparent, Huizong personally presided at the full rites and invested her as crown princess. When Qinzong took the throne she was made empress. Bo Cai was posthumously enfeoffed as Prince of Enping. After the empress was carried off northward, no word of her death reached the court. In 1197 a superior honorific was conferred, her posthumous name was fixed as Renhuai, her spirit tablet was placed in Qinzong's shrine in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, and fifteen of her kin received favors. Two years later her spirit seat was installed in Jingling Palace.
65
兄二人：孝孫，靖康中以節鉞換授右金吾衛上將軍，卒贈開府含義同三同； 孝章，一日孝莊，官至永慶軍承宣使，卒贈昭化軍節度使。
She had two elder brothers: Xiaosun, who during the Jingkang crisis surrendered his command for appointment as senior general of the Right Golden Crow Guards and who, when he died, was posthumously granted defender-in-chief with honors equal to the Three Excellencies; and Xiaozhang—who was once known as Xiaozhuang—rose to deputy military commissioner of Yongqing Army and on his death was posthumously made military commissioner of Zhaohua Army.
66
憲節邢皇后
Empress Xianjie of the Xing clan
67
紹興九年，后崩于五國城，年三十四。 金人秘之，高宗虛中宮以待者十六年。 顯仁太后回鑾，始得崩聞。 上為輟朝，行釋服之祭，諡懿節，祔主於別廟。
In 1139 the empress died at Five States City, aged thirty-four. The Jin concealed her death, and Gaozong kept the main consort's seat empty while he waited for her return—a wait that lasted sixteen years. Not until Empress Dowager Xianren's own return south did the emperor learn that the empress had died. He suspended court, performed the rites of released mourning, gave her the posthumous name Yijie, and enshrined her spirit tablet in a side temple.
68
紹興十二年八月，后梓宮至，攢于聖獻太后梓宮之西北。 帝思后，殊慘不樂，皇后吳氏知帝意，乃請為其侄珣、琚婚邢氏二女，以慰帝心。 淳熙末，改諡憲節，祔高宗廟。
In the eighth month of 1142 her coffin reached the capital and was buried northwest of Empress Dowager Shengxian's tomb. The emperor mourned her so keenly that he could scarcely be consoled; Empress Wu, perceiving his grief, asked that her nephews Xun and Ju marry two daughters of the Xing house to comfort him. Late in the Chunxi reign her posthumous name was revised to Xianjie and she was enshrined in Gaozong's temple shrine.
69
憲聖慈烈吳皇后
Empress Xiansheng Cilie of the Wu clan
70
憲聖慈烈吳皇后，開封人。 父近，以后貴，累官武翼郎，贈太師，追封吳王，諡宣靖。
Empress Xiansheng Cilie Wu came from Kaifeng. Her father Jin, raised by his daughter's rank, rose repeatedly in office to Martial Wings Gentleman, and after death was made grand preceptor, enfeoffed as Prince of Wu, and given the posthumous epithet Xuanjing.
71
近嘗夢至一亭，扁曰「侍康」； 傍植芍藥，獨放一花，殊妍麗可愛，花下白羊一，近寤而異之。 后以乙未歲生，方產時，紅光徹戶外。 年十四，高宗為康王，被選入宮，人謂「侍康」之徵。
Jin once dreamed that he reached a pavilion labeled "Serving Kang"; peonies grew beside it, one bloom alone in surpassing beauty, and a white sheep stood beneath the flower; when he woke he was struck by the omen. The empress was born in the yiwei cycle year; at her birth red light flooded the space beyond the door. At fourteen she was selected for the palace when Gaozong was still Prince of Kang—taken as the fulfillment of the "Serving Kang" sign.
72
王即帝位，后常以戎服侍左右。 后頗知書，從幸四明，衛士謀為變，入問帝所在，后紿之以免。 未幾，帝航海，有魚躍入禦舟，后曰：「此周人白魚之祥也。」 帝大悅，封和義郡夫人。 還越，進封才人。 后益博習書史，又善翰墨，由是寵遇日至，與張氏並為婉儀，尋進貴妃。
Once he took the throne she often waited on him in martial attire. She was well read and accompanied him to Siming; when guards plotted mutiny and asked where the emperor was, she deceived them and he escaped unharmed. Soon afterward the emperor went to sea; when a fish leaped into the imperial boat she said, "This is the auspice of the white fish from the Zhou rise to power. The emperor was delighted and enfeoffed her as Lady of Heyi Commandery. After the return to Yue she was promoted to Talented Lady. She deepened her study of history and excelled at calligraphy; imperial favor grew daily until she and Lady Zhang were both Honored Ladies and soon Imperial Consorts.
73
顯仁太后回鑾，亦愛后。 憲節皇后崩聞至，秦檜等累表請立中宮，太后亦為言。 紹興十三年，詔立貴妃為皇后。 帝御文德殿授冊，后即穆清殿廷受之。 追王三代，親屬由後官者三十五人。
When Empress Dowager Xianren returned south she also cherished the future empress. After news arrived of Empress Xianjie's death, Qin Hui and others repeatedly urged Gaozong to fill the main consort's seat, and the empress dowager spoke for her too. In 1143 an edict made the imperial consort empress. The emperor conducted the investiture at Wende Hall and she received the patent in Muqing Hall. Three generations of her ancestors were enfeoffed as kings and thirty-five relatives who had entered service through her connections were promoted.
74
顯仁太后性嚴肅，后身承起居，順適其意。 嘗繪《古列女圖》，置坐中為鑒； 又取《詩序》之義，扁其堂曰「賢志」。
Empress Dowager Xianren was severe by disposition; the empress waited on her in person day and night and adapted herself to her every wish. She once painted scenes from Exemplary Women of Antiquity and kept them before her as a moral mirror; and, drawing on the moral prefaces of the Book of Songs, she named her hall "Admirable Resolve."
75
初，伯琮以宗子召入宮，命張氏育之。 后時為才人，亦請得育一子，於是得伯玖，更名璩。 中外議頗籍籍。 張氏卒，並育於后，后視之無間。 伯琮性恭儉，喜讀書，帝與后皆愛之，封普安郡王。 后嘗語帝曰：「普安，其天日之表也。」 帝意決，立為皇子，封建王。 出璩居紹興。
Earlier, Bo Cong had been brought into the palace as an imperial clansman and the emperor charged Lady Zhang with raising him. The empress, then still a Talented Lady, also asked to raise a prince; she was given Bo Jiu, later renamed Yu. Court and capital alike murmured at the arrangement. After Lady Zhang died both boys were placed under the empress, who cared for them without favoritism. Bo Cong was respectful, frugal, and fond of study; emperor and empress alike loved him and made him Prince of Pu'an Commandery. The empress once told the emperor, "Pu'an has the bearing of a Son of Heaven. The emperor's mind was made up; he made him heir apparent and then Prince of Jian. Yu was sent to live at Shaoxing.
76
時光宗疾未平，不能執喪，宰臣請垂簾主喪事，后不可。 已而宰執請如唐肅宗故事，群臣發喪太極殿，成服禁中，許之。 后代行祭尊禮。 尋用樞密趙汝愚請，于梓宮前垂簾，宣光宗手詔，立皇子嘉王為皇帝。 翌日，冊夫人韓氏為皇后，撤簾。 慶元元年，加號光祐，遷居重華宮。 汝愚後以謫死，中書舍人汪義端目汝愚為李林甫，欲並逐其党，太后聞而非之。
Guangzong's illness had not yet lifted and he could not conduct the mourning rites; the chief ministers asked the empress dowager to rule from behind a screen and manage the funeral, but she refused. The ministers then proposed following the Tang Suzong precedent: the court would hold the public mourning at Taiji Hall while the palace observed private mourning, and she assented. The empress dowager herself carried out the honorary sacrifices on his behalf. Soon, at the request of Privy Councillor Zhao Ruyu, she drew the curtain before the coffin, read Guangzong's own edict, and installed Crown Prince Prince Jia as emperor. The following day she invested Lady Han as empress and lifted the curtain. In 1195 she received the honorific title Guangyou and took up residence in Chonghua Palace. Zhao Ruyu later died in disgrace; drafting officer Wang Yiduan compared him to Li Linfu and sought to drive out his allies too, but the empress dowager condemned the proposal.
77
三年十月，后寢疾，詔禱天地、宗廟、社稷，大赦天下，逾月而崩，年八十三。 遺誥：「太上皇帝疾未痊癒，宜於宮中承重； 皇帝服齊衰五月，以日易月。」 詔服期年喪。 諡曰憲聖慈烈，攢祔於永思陵。
In the tenth month of 1197 she fell ill; the court ordered prayers at the temples and altars and proclaimed a general amnesty; a little over a month later she died, aged eighty-three. Her final edict ran: "The Retired Emperor has not yet recovered; he should undertake the principal mourning duties within the palace; the Emperor should wear second-grade mourning for five months, reckoning each day as a month." An edict then required the full one-year mourning period. She received the temple name Xiansheng Cilie and was jointly enshrined at Yongsi Mausoleum.
78
潘賢妃
Worthy Consort Pan
79
潘賢妃，開封人，元懿太子母也。 父永壽，直翰林醫局官。 高宗居康邸時納之，邢后北遷，妃未有位號，帝即位，將立為后，呂好問諫止之，立為賢妃。 太子薨，從隆祐太后于江西，逾年還。 紹興十八年薨。 永壽，贈太子少師。
Worthy Consort Pan, from Kaifeng, was the mother of Heir Apparent Yuanyi. Her father Yongshou served as a physician in the Hanlin Medical Bureau. Gaozong took her in while he still lived at the Kang residence. After Empress Xing was taken north, Pan had no formal title. When he became emperor he intended to make her empress, but Lü Haowen dissuaded him, and she was created Worthy Consort instead. After the crown prince died she accompanied Empress Dowager Longyou to Jiangxi and returned more than a year later. She died in 1148. Yongshou was posthumously made Grand Mentor of the Heir Apparent.
80
張賢妃
Worthy Consort Zhang
81
張賢妃，開封人。 建炎初，為才人，有寵，進婕妤。 帝欲擇宗室子養禁中，輔臣問帝以宮中可付託者誰耶？ 帝曰：「已得之矣。」 意在婕妤。 已而伯琮入宮，年尚幼，婕妤與潘賢妃、吳才人方環坐，以觀其所向。 時賢妃新失皇子，意忽忽不樂，婕妤手招之，遂向婕妤。 帝因命婕妤母之，是為孝宗。 尋遷婉儀，十二年卒，上為輟朝二日，贈賢妃。 弟萃，閣門宣贊舍人，妃薨，遷秩二階。
Worthy Consort Zhang was from Kaifeng. Early in the Jianyan era she entered the palace as a Talented Lady, won the emperor's favor, and was promoted to Imperial Concubine. The emperor wanted to adopt an imperial clansman to raise in the palace. A leading minister asked whom in the inner quarters might be trusted with such a charge. The emperor replied, "I have already found him. He had the Imperial Concubine in mind. Bo Cong was then brought into the palace while still a child. Imperial Concubine Zhang, Worthy Consort Pan, and Talented Lady Wu sat around him to see whom he would approach. Worthy Consort Pan had just lost a son and was downcast. Imperial Concubine Zhang beckoned to the boy, and he went to her. The emperor then had Imperial Concubine Zhang rear him as her son; this child became Emperor Xiaozong. She was soon promoted to Honored Lady. In the twelfth year of Shaoxing she died; the emperor halted court audiences for two days and posthumously ennobled her as Worthy Consort. Her younger brother Cui was a Gate-Ushers' Promoter; when she died his rank was raised two grades.
82
劉貴妃
Imperial Consort Liu
83
劉賢妃，臨安人。 入宮為紅霞帔，遷才人，累遷婕妤、婉容，紹興二十四年進賢妃。 頗恃寵驕侈，嘗因盛夏以水晶飾腳踏，帝見之，命取為枕，妃懼，撤去之。 淳熙十四年薨。
Worthy Consort Liu was from Lin'an. She entered the palace as a Hongxia Pei attendant, became a Talented Lady, and rose through Imperial Concubine and Graceful Lady; in 1154 she was promoted to Worthy Consort. She was spoiled by favor and lived lavishly. One midsummer she inlaid her footrest with crystal. When the emperor saw it he had it taken for his pillow; alarmed, she had the ornament removed. She died in 1187.
84
父懋，累官昭慶軍節度使。 金人南侵，獻錢二萬緡以助軍興費。 懋子允升，紹興末為和州防禦使、知閣門事。 奉使還，遷蘄州防物使、福州觀察使。
Her father Mao eventually became military commissioner of the Zhaqing army. When the Jurchens pushed south he donated twenty thousand strings of cash toward war costs. Mao's son Yun Sheng, late in the Shaoxing era, served as defense commissioner of He Prefecture and director of the Gate-Ushers' Office. After completing an embassy he was promoted to defense commissioner of Qi Prefecture and observation commissioner of Fuzhou.
85
劉婉儀
Honored Lady Liu
86
劉婉儀，初入宮，封宜春郡夫人。 尋進才人，與劉婉容俱被寵，進婉儀。 婉儀頗恃恩招，嘗遣人諷廣州蕃商獻明珠香藥，許以官爵。 舶官林孝澤言於朝，詔止其獻。 金人將叛盟，劉錡主戰，幸醫王繼先從中沮之，因謀誅錡，帝不懌。 一日，在婉儀位，有憂色。 婉儀陰訪得其言，以寬譬帝意。 帝怪與繼先言合，詰之，婉儀急，具以實對。 帝大怒，托以他過廢之。 兄伉，累官和州防禦使、知閣門事，婉儀既廢，乃與祠罷歸。
When Honored Lady Liu first entered the palace she was enfeoffed as Lady of Yichun Commandery. She was soon made a Talented Lady. She and Graceful Lady Liu both won favor and were promoted to Honored Lady. Honored Lady Liu used her influence to solicit tribute: she once had an intermediary suggest to Guangzhou maritime traders that they offer pearls and aromatics in exchange for official rank. The shipping superintendent Lin Xiaozhe reported this to court, and an edict forbade the gifts. As the Jin were about to renounce the peace treaty, Liu Qi urged war, but the emperor's favorite physician Wang Jixian worked behind the scenes to thwart him and even plotted Qi's death. The emperor was troubled. One day, visiting Honored Lady Liu's quarters, he looked worried. She quietly found out what was weighing on him and spoke to calm him. Surprised that her words matched Wang Jixian's, he pressed her; alarmed, she confessed everything. Furious, he deposed her on a pretext of other misconduct. Her elder brother Kang had served as defense commissioner of He Prefecture and director of the Gate-Ushers' Office; after her fall he was given a nominal temple post and sent home.
87
張貴妃
Imperial Noble Consort Zhang
88
張貴妃，開封祥符人。 初入宮，封永嘉郡夫人。 乾道六年，進婉容。 淳熙七年，封太上皇淑妃。 十六年，進貴妃。 紹熙元年薨。
Imperial Noble Consort Zhang was from Xiangfu in Kaifeng. When she first entered the palace she was enfeoffed as Lady of Yongjia Commandery. In 1170 she was promoted to Graceful Lady. In 1180 she was created imperial concubine to the Retired Emperor. In 1189 she was promoted to imperial noble consort. She died in 1190.
89
美人馮氏，才人韓氏、吳氏、李氏、王氏俱被寵倖，后皆廢。 吳氏，中宮近屬也，紹興三十年，復故封。 李氏、王氏俱明豔，淳熙末，上皇愛之。 及崩，憲聖后見二才人，每感憤，孝宗即追告命，許自便。 蓋非常制云。
Beautiful Lady Feng and Talented Ladies Han, Wu, Li, and Wang all enjoyed the emperor's favor, but each was later dismissed. Wu was kin to the empress's household; in 1160 her former title was restored. Li and Wang were both renowned for their beauty; toward the end of the Chunxi era the Retired Emperor doted on them. After his death Empress Xiansheng grew indignant whenever she saw the two talented ladies. Xiaozong immediately restored their patents and allowed them to leave court freely. This was an exceptional measure.
90
成穆郭皇后
Empress Chengmu Guo
91
孝宗成穆郭皇后，開封祥符人。 奉直大夫直卿之女孫，其六世祖為章穆皇后外家。 孝宗為普安郡王時納郭氏，封咸甯郡夫人。 生光守及莊文太子、魏惠憲王愷、邵悼肅王恪。 紹興二十六年薨，年三十一，追封淑國夫人。 三十一年，用明堂恩，贈福國夫人。 既建太子，追封皇太子妃。 及受禪，追冊為皇后，諡恭懷，尋改安穆。 及營阜陵，又改成穆，祔孝宗廟。
Emperor Xiaozong's Empress Chengmu Guo was from Xiangfu in Kaifeng. She was a granddaughter of Zhiqing, a retired attendant of the Direct Service; her sixth-generation forebear came from the maternal family of Empress Zhangmu. When Xiaozong was Prince of Pu'an he married Guo and enfeoffed her as Lady of Xianning Commandery. She bore Guangshou, Crown Prince Zhuangwen, Prince Wei Hui Xian (Kai), and Prince Shao Dao Su (Ke). She died in 1156 at thirty-one and was posthumously enfeoffed as Lady of Shuguo. In 1161, by grace of the Bright Hall ceremony, she was advanced to Lady of Fuguo. After the crown prince was named she was posthumously made crown prince's consort. When he took the throne she was posthumously enthroned as empress with the posthumous name Gonghuai, soon changed to Anmu. When Yongfu Mausoleum was laid out the title was changed again to Chengmu, and she was enshrined in Xiaozong's ancestral shrine.
92
父瑊，累官昭慶軍承宣使，追封榮王。 孝宗待郭氏恩禮彌厚，然不假外戚以官爵。 后弟師禹、師元，官不過承宣使，師元不及建節而卒。 將內禪，師禹始除節度使。 光宗朝，官至太保，封永甯郡王。
Her father Jian rose to commissary envoy of the Zhaqing army and was posthumously enfeoffed as Prince Rong. Xiaozong showed the Guo family ever greater honor, yet he did not shower offices on his wife's relatives. Her brothers Shiyu and Shiyuan never rose above commissary envoy; Shiyuan died before receiving a military commission. Just before Xiaozong's abdication, Shiyu was finally made a military commissioner. Under Guangzong he rose to grand protector and was enfeoffed as Prince of Yongning Commandery.
93
成恭夏皇后
Empress Chenggong Xia
94
初，后之生也，有異光穿室，父協奇之，及長，以姿納宮中。 久之，父居益困，及歸，客袁之僧舍，號夏翁。 翁亡，后始貴。 訪得其弟執中，補承信郎、閣門祗候。 未幾，遷右武郎、閣門宣贊舍人，累遷奉國軍節度使，提舉萬壽觀。 甯宗即位，加少保。 逾年，卒於家。
At her birth a strange light filled the room; her father Xie took it as an omen. When she grew up she entered the palace for her looks. Her father later fell on hard times. After leaving the capital he stayed at a monastery in Yuan and called himself Old Man Xia. Only after he died did the empress rise to high standing. She tracked down her younger brother Zhizhong and appointed him gentleman for fidelity and gate-ushers' attendant. Soon he became right military gentleman and gate-ushers' promoter, then rose to military commissioner of the Fengguo army and superintendent of Wanshou Abbey. When Ningzong ascended the throne he was made junior protector. A little over a year later he died at home.
95
初，執中與其微時妻至京，宮人諷使出之，擇配貴族，欲以媚后，執中弗為動。 他日，后親為言，執中誦宋弘語以對，后不能奪。 既貴，始從師學，作大字頗工，復善騎射。 高宗行慶壽禮，近戚爭獻珍環，執中獨大書「一人有慶，萬壽無疆」以獻。 高宗喜，錫賚甚渥。 嘗為館伴副使，連射皆命中，金人駭服。 孝宗聞其才，將召用之，謝曰：「他日無累陛下，保全足矣。」 人以此益賢之。
Early on Zhizhong and the wife he had married in poverty came to the capital. Palace women urged him to divorce her and take a noble bride to please the empress, but he refused. Later the empress spoke to him herself; he answered with Song Hong's saying on not abandoning one's wife, and she could not sway him. After he rose in rank he took up formal study, wrote large script with real skill, and excelled at mounted archery. At Gaozong's birthday celebration, close kin competed to offer jeweled rings; Zhizhong alone presented a large inscription reading, "When one man has blessing, myriad years know no bound." Gaozong was delighted and rewarded him lavishly. Serving once as deputy escort on a diplomatic mission, he hit every target in a row of shots and awed the Jurchen envoys. Xiaozong heard of his ability and meant to summon him to office; he declined, saying, "It is enough that I not burden Your Majesty later; mere safety is all I ask. People admired him all the more for this.
96
成肅謝皇后
Empress Chengsu Xie
97
成肅謝皇后，丹陽人。 幼孤，鞠于翟氏，因冒姓焉。 及長，被選入宮。 憲聖太后以賜普安郡王，封咸安郡夫人。 王即位，進婉容。 逾年，進貴妃。
Empress Chengsu Xie was from Danyang. Orphaned in childhood, she was raised by the Zhai family and took their surname. When she came of age she was chosen for the palace. Empress Dowager Xiansheng gave her to the Prince of Pu'an, and she was enfeoffed as Lady of Xian'an Commandery. When he became emperor she was promoted to Graceful Lady. A year later she was made imperial noble consort.
98
成恭皇后崩，中宮虛位。 淳熙三年，妃侍帝，過德壽宮，上皇諭以立后意。 尋遣張去為傳旨，立貴妃為皇后，復姓謝氏。 親屬推恩者十人。 光宗受禪，上尊號壽成皇后。 孝宗崩，尊為皇太后。 慶元初，加號惠慈。 嘉泰二年，加慈佑太皇太后。 三年崩，諡成肅，攢錡於永阜陵。
After Empress Chenggong died the empress's seat remained empty. In 1176, while attending the emperor on a visit to De Shou Palace, the Retired Emperor told her of his plan to install an empress. Zhang Qu was soon dispatched with the decree: she was enthroned as empress and her surname Xie was restored. Ten relatives received honors by extension. When Guangzong took the throne she was given the title Empress Shoucheng. After Xiaozong's death she was honored as empress dowager. At the start of the Qingyuan era she received the additional epithets Hui and Ci. In 1202 she was elevated to Grand Empress Dowager Ciyou. She died in 1203; her posthumous name was Chengsu, and she was jointly enshrined at Yongfu Mausoleum.
99
后性儉慈，減膳羊，每食必先以進禦。 服汗濯衣，有數年不易者。 弟淵，以后貴，授武翼郎。 后嘗戒之曰：「主上化行恭儉，吾亦躬服汗濯，爾宜崇謙抑，遠驕侈。」 后曆閣門宣贊舍人、帶禦器械。 光宗朝，遷果州團練使。 甯宗立，轉萊州防禦使，擢知閣門事，仍幹辦皇城司。 三遷至保信軍節度使，尋加太尉、開府儀同三司。 成肅皇后崩，遺誥賜淵錢十萬緡、金二千兩、田十頃，僦緡日十千。 后累升三少，封和國公。 嘉定四年薨，贈太保。
The empress was frugal and kindly: she cut back on lamb at court and at each meal had food sent first to the emperor. She wore plain washed clothes; some pieces she kept for years without replacing. Her younger brother Yuan, owing to his sister's rank, was appointed gentleman at arms in the Wu Yi office. The empress once warned him: "The emperor's court is marked by reverence and thrift; I myself wear plain washed clothes. You should cultivate humility and shun pride and luxury. Yuan served in turn as palace gate announcer and retainer, then as bearer of the imperial apparatus. During Guangzong's reign he was promoted to regiment commander of Guo Prefecture. When Ningzong acceded, Yuan became defensive commissioner of Lai Prefecture, was elevated to overseer of palace gate affairs, and continued to direct the Imperial City Bureau. After three further promotions he became military commissioner of the Baoxin Army, then received the ranks of grand marshal and grand preceptor of state with palatine honors equal to the three top councils. At Empress Chengsu's death her testament granted Yuan one hundred thousand strings of cash, two thousand taels of gold, ten qing of land, and a daily income of ten thousand strings from rents. He rose through the three junior ranks in succession and was enfeoffed as Duke of He. He died in 1211 and was posthumously made grand guardian.
100
蔡貴妃
Imperial Noble Consort Cai
101
李賢妃
Worthy Consort Li
102
李賢妃，初入宮，為典字，轉通義郡夫人，進婕妤。 淳熙十年卒，贈賢妃。 時李燾在經筵，嘗諫省後宮費。 帝曰：「朕老矣，安有是？ 近葬李妃用三萬緡耳。」 帝雖在位久，後宮寵倖，無著聞者。
Worthy Consort Li first entered the palace as a keeper of characters, became Lady of Tongyi Commandery, and was promoted to talented lady. She died in 1183 and was posthumously named worthy consort. At that time Li Tao served on the classics lecture and once urged curbing expenditures of the inner palace. The emperor replied: "I am an old man—when would there be anything like that? The recent funeral of Lady Li cost only thirty thousand strings." Though the emperor had reigned for many years, no noteworthy scandals of inner-palace favoritism were ever recorded.
103
慈懿李皇后
Empress Ciyi Li
104
光宗慈懿李皇后，安陽人，慶遠軍節度使、贈太尉道之中女。 初，后生，有黑鳳集道營前石上，道心異之，遂字后曰鳳娘。 道帥湖北，聞道士皇甫坦善相人，乃出諸女拜坦。 坦見后，驚不敢受拜，曰：「此女當母天下。」 坦言于高宗，遂聘為恭王妃，封榮國夫人，進定國夫人。 乾道四年，生嘉王。 七年，立為皇太子妃。
Guangzong's Empress Ciyi Li came from Anyang; she was the middle daughter of Dao, military commissioner of the Qingyuan Army, posthumously grand marshal. When she was born a dark phoenix settled on a stone before her father's camp; Dao took it as an omen and gave her the childhood name Fengniang ("Little Phoenix"). When Dao commanded Hubei he heard that the Taoist Huangfu Tan excelled at reading faces and presented his daughters to Tan. Tan was astonished at the sight of her and refused her bow, saying: "This girl is destined to rule the empire as empress. Tan reported this to Gaozong; she was betrothed to the Prince of Gong, titled Lady of Rong, and promoted to Lady of Ding. In 1168 she gave birth to the Prince of Jia. In 1171 she was made crown princess.
105
性妒悍，嘗訴太子左右于高、孝二宮，高宗不懌，謂吳后曰：「是婦將種，吾為皇甫坦所誤。」 孝宗亦屢訓后：「宜以皇太后為法，不然，行當廢汝。」 后疑其說出於太后。
Jealous and fierce by nature, she once denounced the crown prince's attendants to the retired palaces of Gaozong and Xiaozong. Gaozong was displeased and told Empress Wu: "That woman comes of violent stock; Huangfu Tan deceived me. Xiaozong too repeatedly warned her: "Take the empress dowager as your model, or you will be deposed. The princess suspected these warnings came from the empress dowager.
106
及太子即位，冊為皇后。 光宗欲誅宦者，近習皆懼，遂謀離間三宮。 會帝得習疾，孝宗購得良藥，欲因帝至宮授之。 宦者遂訴於后曰：「太上合藥一大丸，俟宮車過即投藥。 萬一有不虞，其奈宗社何？」 后覘藥實有。 心銜之。 頃之，內宴，后請立嘉王為太子，孝宗不許。 后曰：「妾六禮所聘，嘉王，妾親生也，何為不可？」 孝宗大怒。 后退，持嘉王泣訴於帝，謂壽皇有廢立意。 帝惑之，遂不朝太上。
When the crown prince became emperor she was enthroned as empress. Guangzong intended to purge the eunuchs; his intimates, fearing for themselves, plotted to drive a wedge between the three palaces. The emperor fell into a chronic illness; Xiaozong obtained good medicine and planned to give it to him on a palace visit. The eunuchs told the empress: "The Retired Emperor has prepared a large pill of medicine and will throw it into the carriage when it passes. If anything went wrong, what would become of the dynasty?" The empress investigated and found the medicine was real. She harbored a deep grudge. Soon afterward, at a private banquet, the empress asked that the Prince of Jia be named heir; Xiaozong refused. The empress protested: "I was wed by the full six rites; the Prince of Jia is my own son—why should that not be allowed?" Xiaozong flew into a rage. She withdrew with the Prince of Jia in tears and told the emperor that the Retired Emperor meant to displace them. Believing her, he stopped visiting his father at the retired palace.
107
帝嘗宮中浣手，睹宮人手白，悅之。 他日，后遣人送食合於帝，啟之，則宮人兩手也。 又黃妃有寵，因帝親郊，宿齋宮，后殺之，以暴卒聞。 是夕風雨大作，黃壇燭盡滅，不能成禮。 帝疾由是益增劇，不視朝，政事多決於后矣。 后益驕奢，封三代為王，家廟逾制，衛兵多於太廟。 后歸謁家廟，推恩親屬二十六人、使臣一百七十二人，下至李氏門客，亦奏補官。 中興以來未有也。
Once while washing his hands in the palace he admired a maid's fair hands. On another day the empress sent him a food box; inside were the maid's severed hands. Imperial Consort Huang also enjoyed his favor; while the emperor was lodging at the purification palace during his personal performance of the suburban sacrifice, the empress had her killed and announced a sudden death. That night a storm blew out every candle on the yellow altar, and the rites could not be completed. His illness worsened; he stopped holding court, and government passed increasingly into the empress's hands. She grew ever more arrogant and extravagant: she enfeoffed three generations of her family as kings, built a clan temple in violation of statute, and stationed more guards at it than at the Imperial Ancestral Temple. On a visit to her clan temple she extended favors to twenty-six relatives and one hundred seventy-two envoy-officers; even Li family clients received appointments by memorial. Nothing comparable had been seen since the dynasty's restoration.
108
是時，帝久不朝太上，中外疑駭。 紹熙四年九月重明節，宰執、侍從，台諫連章請帝過宮。 給事中謝深甫言：「父子至親，天理昭然。 太上之愛陛下，亦猶陛下之愛嘉王。 太上春秋高，千秋萬歲後，陛下何以見天下？」 帝感悟，趣命駕朝重華宮。 是日，百官班列俟帝出，至禦屏，后挽留帝入，曰：「天寒，官家且飲酒。」 百僚、侍衛相顧莫敢言。 中書舍人陳傅良引帝裾請毋入，因至屏後，后叱曰：「此何地，爾秀才欲所頭邪？」 傅良下殿慟哭，后復使人問曰：「此何理也。」 傅良曰：「子諫父不聽，則號泣而隨之。」 后益怒，遂傳旨罷還宮。 其後孝宗崩，帝不能親執喪。
By then the emperor had not visited the retired palace for a long time, and court and country were troubled by suspicion. On the Chongming Festival in the ninth month of 1193, grand councilors, attendants, and remonstrance officials submitted repeated memorials urging the emperor to visit the retired palace. Supervising secretary drafter Xie Shenfu said: "The bond between father and son is the closest in nature, and Heaven's law is plain to see. The Retired Emperor loves you as you love the Prince of Jia. His years are advanced; when he is gone, how will you face the world?" Moved by this, the emperor at once ordered his carriage to Chonghua Palace. That day officials waited in formation for him to emerge; at the imperial screen the empress detained him, saying: "It is cold—stay and have wine. Officials and guards looked at one another in silence, none daring to speak. Secretariat drafter Chen Fuliang seized the emperor's robe and begged him not to go in; following to behind the screen, the empress shouted: "What place is this—do you want your head cut off, scholar?" Chen descended the hall in tears; the empress sent someone to ask: "What sort of behavior is this?" Chen replied: "When a son remonstrates with his father and is not heeded, he weeps and follows after him." The empress grew angrier still and issued an order to turn back to the palace. When Xiaozong died afterward, the emperor could not personally perform the mourning rites.
109
宰相趙汝愚謀內禪，立甯宗，尊后曰太上皇后，上尊號曰壽仁。 慶元六年崩，年五十六，諡慈懿。
Chief councilor Zhao Ruyu engineered an inner abdication, enthroned Ningzong, and honored her as retired empress with the title Shouren. She died in 1200 at fifty-six; her posthumous name was Ciyi.
110
黃貴妃
Imperial Consort Huang
111
黃貴妃，淳熙末在德壽宮，封和義郡夫人。 光宗為皇太子，傍無侍姬，上皇以夫人賜之，遂專寵。 即位，拜貴妃。 紹熙二年冬十一月，為皇后李氏所殺。 帝聞而成疾。 又有張貴妃，亦舊侍東宮，次婕妤符氏，后出嫁於民間。
Imperial Consort Huang was in De Shou Palace in the late Chunxi era and was titled Lady of Heyi Commandery. As crown prince Guangzong had no concubines; the retired emperor gave her to him, and she thereafter enjoyed his exclusive favor. When he took the throne she was made imperial consort. In the eleventh month of winter 1191 she was killed by Empress Li. On hearing of it the emperor fell ill. There was also Imperial Consort Zhang, another former eastern-palace attendant, and Talented Lady Fu; the empress married them off to commoners.
112
恭淑韓皇后
Empress Gongshu Han
113
甯宗恭淑韓皇后，相州人，其六世祖為忠獻王琦。 初，后與姊俱被選入宮，后能順適兩宮意，遂歸平陽郡邸，封新安郡夫人，進崇國夫人。 王受禪，冊夫人為皇后。 后父同卿，由知泰州升揚州觀察使； 母莊氏，封安國夫人。
Ningzong's Empress Gongshu Han came from Xiang Prefecture; her sixth-generation ancestor was the Loyal and Offering King Han Qi. She and her elder sister were first selected for the palace; she won favor at both palaces and was sent to the Prince of Pingyang's residence, titled Lady of Xin'an, then Lady of Chong. When the prince accepted the abdication she was enthroned as empress. Her father Tongqing rose from prefect of Tai Prefecture to surveillance commissioner of Yang Prefecture; her mother, Lady Zhuang, was titled Lady of An.
114
慶元六年崩，諡恭淑。 同卿累遷慶遠軍節度使，加太尉。 慶元五年卒，贈太師，諡恭靖。
She died in 1200; her posthumous name was Gongshu. Tongqing was eventually promoted to military commissioner of the Qingyuan Army and made grand marshal. He died in 1199 and was posthumously named grand preceptor with the epithet Gongjing.
115
同卿季父侂胄，自以有定策功，聲勢熏灼。 同卿每懼滿盈，不敢幹政。 時天下皆知侂胄為后族，不知同卿乃后父也。 同卿沒一年而后崩，侂胄竟敗，人始服其善遠權熱去。 同卿子竢，后兄也，官至承宣使。
Tongqing's uncle Han Yuozhou, claiming credit for securing the succession, wielded overwhelming influence. Tongqing always feared excess and refused to meddle in politics. At the time everyone knew Han Yuozhou as the empress's relation, not realizing Tongqing was her father. Tongqing died a year before the empress; when Han Yuozhou fell at last, people came to admire how wisely he had kept his distance from factional heat. Tongqing's son Si, the empress's elder brother, rose to commissioner for the propagation of edicts.
116
恭聖仁烈楊皇后
Empress Gongsheng Renlie Yang
117
恭聖仁烈楊皇后，少以姿容選入宮，忘其姓氏，或云會稽人。 慶元元年三月，封平樂郡夫人。 三年四月，進封婕妤。 有楊次山者，亦會稽人，后自謂其兄也，遂姓楊氏。
Empress Gongsheng Renlie Yang entered the palace young for her beauty; her original surname was lost, though some said she was from Kuaiji. In the third month of 1195 she was titled Lady of Pingle Commandery. In the fourth month of 1197 she was promoted to talented lady. A man named Yang Cishan, also from Kuaiji, claimed to be her brother; she adopted the Yang surname.
118
五年，進婉儀。 六年，進貴妃。 恭淑皇后崩，中宮未有所屬，貴妃與曹美人俱有寵。 韓侂胄見妃任權術，而曹美人性柔順，勸帝立曹。 而貴妃頗涉書史，知古今，性復機警，帝竟立之。
In 1199 she was promoted to graceful lady. In 1200 she was made imperial consort. After Empress Gongshu's death the empress's seat was vacant; both the imperial consort and Lady Cao enjoyed favor. Han Yuozhou saw that the consort was adept at intrigue while Lady Cao was meek; he urged the emperor to make Lady Cao empress. But the consort was well read, knew history, and was quick-witted; the emperor installed her after all.
119
次山客王夢龍知其謀，密以告后，后深銜之，與次山欲因事誅侂胄。 會侂胄議用兵中原，俾皇子曮入奏：「侂胄再起兵端，將不利於社稷。」 帝不答。 后從傍贊之甚力，亦不答。 恐事泄，俾次山擇廷臣可任者，與共圖之。 禮部侍郎史彌遠，素與侂胄有隙，遂欣然奉命。 參知政事錢象祖，嘗諫用兵貶信州，彌遠乃先告之。 禮部尚書衛涇、著作郎王居安、前右司郎官張鎡皆預其謀。 開禧三年十一月三日，侂胄方早朝，彌遠密遣中軍統制夏震伏兵六部橋側，率健卒擁侂胄至玉津園，槌殺之。 復命彌遠。 象祖等俱赴延和殿，以殛侂胄聞，帝不之信，越三日，帝猶謂其未死。 蓋是謀悉出中宮及次山等，帝初不知也。
Yang Cishan's client Wang Menglong learned of the scheme and secretly informed the empress; she deeply resented Han Yuozhou and plotted with Cishan to destroy him at the first opportunity. When Han Yuozhou pressed for war to recover the Central Plains, he had Prince Yan memorialized: "Han Yuozhou is reopening hostilities that will harm the realm." The emperor made no reply. The empress strongly supported the memorial from his side; he still did not answer. Fearing exposure, she had Yang Cishan choose trustworthy ministers and plot with them against Han Yuozhou. Shi Miyuan, Vice Minister of Rites, had long been at odds with Han Tuozhou and accepted the assignment with alacrity. Qian Xiangzu, Vice Director of the Secretariat, who had once opposed going to war and been banished to Xin Prefecture, was brought into the plot by Miyuan beforehand. Minister of Rites Wei Jing, Authoring Academician Wang Ju'an, and the former Right Office Gentleman Zhang Zhen all joined the conspiracy. On the third day of the eleventh month in the third year of Kaixi, while Han Tuozhou was attending early court, Miyuan secretly dispatched the Central Army commandant Xia Zhen to lie in wait beside the Liubu Bridge; Xia led picked troops, seized Tuozhou, dragged him to Jade Ford Garden, and clubbed him to death. He then reported back to Miyuan. Xiangzu and the others went together to the Yenhe Hall to announce Tuozhou's execution, but the emperor refused to believe them; three days later he still thought Tuozhou alive. The whole scheme had issued from the inner palace and from Yang Cishan and his circle; the emperor had known nothing of it at the outset.
120
后既誅侂胄，彌遠日益貴用事。 嘉定十四年，帝以國嗣未定，養宗室子貴和，立為皇子，賜名竑。 彌遠為丞相，既信任於后，遂專國政，竑漸不能平。 初，竑好琴，彌遠買美人善琴者納之，而私厚美人家，令伺皇子動靜。 竑嬖之，一日，竑指輿地圖示美人曰：「此瓊崖州也，他日必置史彌遠於此地。」 美人以告彌遠。 竑又書字於幾曰：「彌遠當決配八千里。」 竑左右皆彌遠腹心，走白彌遠。 彌遠大懼，陰蓄異志，欲立他宗室子昀為皇子，遂陰與昀通。
Once the empress had brought about Tuozhou's death, Miyuan grew ever more powerful and dominant in affairs of state. In the fourteenth year of Jiading, with the imperial succession still unsettled, the emperor adopted the clansman Guihe, named him heir apparent, and granted him the personal name Hong. As chief councilor Miyuan, secure in the empress's trust, came to monopolize government; Hong grew increasingly unable to stomach it. Hong had a passion for the zither, so Miyuan purchased a skilled female player and presented her to him, while secretly rewarding the woman's family and instructing her to spy on the prince's every move. Hong became infatuated with her. One day he pointed to the map on his carriage screen and told her, "This is Qiongya Prefecture—one day I shall banish Shi Miyuan to this very place." The woman reported his words to Miyuan. Hong also wrote on his table, "Miyuan deserves banishment eight thousand li away." Every attendant around Hong was Miyuan's planted agent, and they hurried off to inform him. Miyuan was terrified. He secretly formed another plan—to set up the clansman Yun as heir—and began covert dealings with him.
121
十七年閏八月丁酉，帝大漸，彌遠夜召昀入宮，后尚未知也。 彌遠遣后兄子谷及石以廢立事白后，后不可曰：「皇子先帝所立，豈敢擅變？」 是夜，凡七往反，后終不聽。 穀等乃拜泣曰：「內外軍民皆已歸心，苟不立之，禍變必生，則楊氏無唯類矣。」 后默然良久，曰：「其人安在？」 彌遠等召昀入，后拊其背曰：「汝今為吾子矣！」 遂矯詔廢竑為濟王，立昀為皇子，即帝位，尊皇后曰皇太后，同聽政。
On the dingyou day of the intercalary eighth month in the seventeenth year, as the emperor lay dying, Miyuan summoned Yun into the palace by night, before the empress had learned of it. Miyuan sent the empress's nephews Gu and Shi to inform her of the plan to depose Hong and enthrone Yun. She refused: "The heir was appointed by the late emperor—how dare we alter that on our own?" That night they shuttled back and forth seven times, but the empress would not yield. Gu and the others bowed and wept, saying, "Soldiers and civilians alike have already given him their hearts. If he is not enthroned, disaster will surely follow, and the Yang house will be wiped out to the last." After a long silence she asked, "Where is the man?" Miyuan and his allies brought Yun in. The empress patted his back and said, "You are my son now!" They forged an edict deposing Hong as Prince of Ji, installing Yun as heir apparent. Yun ascended the throne at once, and the empress was honored as empress dowager with joint authority over government.
122
寶慶二年十一月戊寅，加尊號壽明。 紹定元年正月丙子，復加慈睿。 四年正月，后壽七十，帝率百官朝慈明殿，加尊號壽明仁福慈睿皇太后。 十二月辛巳，后不豫，詔禱祠天地、宗廟、社稷、宮觀，赦天下。 五年十二月壬午，崩於慈明殿。 壽七十有一，諡恭聖仁烈。
On the wuyin day of the eleventh month in the second year of Baoqing, the honorific Shouming was conferred. On the bingzi day of the first month in the first year of Shaoding, Ciren was added as well. In the first month of the fourth year, when the empress dowager turned seventy, the emperor led the entire bureaucracy to Ciming Hall and bestowed the full honorific Shouming Renfu Ciren Empress Dowager. On the xinsi day of the twelfth month she fell ill. An edict ordered prayers at Heaven and Earth, the ancestral temples, the altars of soil and grain, and the palace chapels, together with a general amnesty. On the renwu day of the twelfth month in the fifth year she died in Ciming Hall. She was seventy-one. Her posthumous title was Gong Sheng Renlie.
123
次山官至少保，封永陽郡王。 次山二子：谷封新安郡王，石永甯郡王。 自有傳。 侄孫鎮，尚理宗女周漢公主，官至左領軍衛將軍、附馬都統。 宗族鳳孫等，皆任通顯云。
Yang Cishan rose to Junior Guardian and was enfeoffed as Prince of Yongyang. Cishan's two sons were enfeoffed as well: Gu as Prince of Xin'an and Shi as Prince of Yongning. Each has a separate biography in these annals. His grand-nephew Zhen married Emperor Lizong's daughter, Princess Zhou Han, and rose to Left Army Guard General and Commandant of the Imperial Son-in-Law's Escort. Other kinsmen, including Fengsun, all held high and conspicuous office, or so it is recorded.
124
理宗謝皇后
Empress Xie of Emperor Lizong
125
理宗謝皇后，諱道清，天臺人。 父渠伯，祖深甫。 后生而黧黑，ＳＬ一目。 渠伯早卒，家產益破壞。 后嘗躬親汲飪。
Empress Xie of Emperor Lizong, whose personal name was Daoqing, came from Tiantai. Her father was Qu Bo; her grandfather, Shenfu. She was born with a dark complexion and a clouded eye. Qu Bo died young, and the family's fortunes sank further. As a girl she drew water and cooked meals with her own hands.
126
初，深甫為相，有援立楊太后功，太后德之。 理宗即位，議擇中宮，太后命選謝氏諸女。 后獨在室，兄弟欲納入宮，諸父攑伯不可，曰：「即奉詔納女，當厚奉資裝，異時不過一老宮婢，事奚益？」 會元夕，縣有鵲來巢燈山，眾以為后妃之祥。 攑伯不能止，乃供送后就道。 后旋病疹，良已，膚蛻，瑩白如玉； 醫又藥去目瞖。 時賈涉女有殊色，同在選中。 及入宮，理宗意欲立賈。 太后曰：「謝女端重有福，宜正中宮。」 左右亦皆竊語曰：「不立真皇后，乃立假皇后邪！」 帝不能奪，遂定立后。 初封通義郡夫人，寶慶三年九月，進貴妃，十二月，冊為皇后。
Earlier, when Shenfu had served as chief councilor, he had helped install Empress Dowager Yang, and she remained in his debt. After Lizong's accession, the court debated the choice of empress. Empress Dowager Yang ordered the daughters of the Xie family brought forward for selection. Daoqing alone was still unmarried at home. Her brothers wanted to send her to the palace, but her uncle Qianbo objected: "Even if we obey the edict and present a daughter with a lavish trousseau, in the end she will be nothing but an old palace servant. What is the use of it?" It happened to be the Lantern Festival, when a magpie nested on the lantern hill in the county seat. Everyone took it as an omen that a consort would rise from their house. Qianbo could not prevail and supplied the means to send her on her way to court. She soon fell ill with measles. When she recovered, her skin peeled away, leaving a complexion lustrous and white as jade; and physicians treated away the clouding in her eye as well. At the time Jia She's daughter, a woman of extraordinary beauty, was also among the candidates. Once they entered the palace, Lizong's inclination was to make Jia his empress. Empress Dowager Yang said, "The Xie girl is dignified and blessed—she is fit for the central palace." Those around the emperor whispered among themselves as well: "Will you pass over the true empress and install a counterfeit one?" The emperor could not override her, and the choice of Xie was settled. She was first enfeoffed as Lady of Tongyi. In the ninth month of the third year of Baoqing she was promoted to Noble Consort, and in the twelfth month she was installed as empress.
127
后既立，賈貴妃專寵； 貴妃薨，閻貴妃又以色進。 后處之裕如，略不介懷。 太后深賢之，而帝禮遇益加焉。 開慶初，大元兵渡江，理宗議遷都平江、慶元，后諫不可，恐搖動民心，乃止。
After Xie was enthroned, Noble Consort Jia held the emperor's exclusive favor; and when Jia died, Imperial Consort Yan won her way in by beauty. The empress bore it all with composure and scarcely minded at all. Empress Dowager Yang admired her deeply, and the emperor's courtesy toward her only grew. At the opening of Kaiqing, when Yuan forces crossed the Yangzi, Lizong considered moving the capital to Pingjiang or Qingyuan. The empress dissuaded him, fearing that flight would unsettle the people, and the plan was abandoned.
128
太后以兵興費繁，痛自裁節，汰慈元殿提舉已下官，省泛索錢緡月萬。 平章賈似道兵潰，陳宜中上疏請正其罪。 太后曰：「似道勤勞三朝，豈宜以一旦罪而失遇大臣禮？」 先削其官，后乃置法貶死。
With war driving costs up, the empress dowager cut her own household spending sharply, eliminated posts in Ciyuan Hall from director downward, and saved ten thousand strings of cash in routine monthly demands. When Chief Councilor Jia Sidao's army collapsed, Chen Yizhong memorialized demanding that his crimes be punished. The empress dowager said, "Sidao has served three reigns with tireless labor—how can a single day's fault justify stripping a great minister of every courtesy due him?" His offices were removed first; only afterward was the law invoked and he condemned to exile and death.
129
京朝官聞難，往往避匿遁去。 太后命揭榜朝堂曰：「我國家三百年，待士大夫不薄。 吾與嗣君遭家多難，爾小大臣不能出一策以救時艱，內則畔官離次，外則委印棄城，避難偷生，尚何人為？ 亦何以見先帝於地下乎？ 天命未改，國法尚存。 凡在官守者，尚書省即與轉一次； 負國逃者，御史覺察以聞。」
Hearing of the crisis, capital and court officials often hid themselves and fled. The empress dowager ordered a placard posted in the court hall: "For three hundred years our dynasty has treated its scholar-officials generously. The heir and I now face calamity upon calamity, yet you great and small cannot offer a single plan to save the realm. Within, you abandon your posts; without, you surrender your seals and desert your cities, fleeing to save your skins. What sort of men are you? How will you face our late emperors in the world below? Heaven's mandate has not yet shifted; the laws of the state still stand. Every official who remains at his post shall receive one promotion step from the Department of State Affairs; and anyone who betrays the state and flees shall be detected and reported by the Censorate."
130
是月，大元兵破常州，太后遣陸秀夫等請和，不從。 宜中即率公卿請遷都，太后不許，宜中痛哭固請，不得已從之。 明日當啟行，而宜中倉卒失奏，於是宮車已駕，日且暮而宜中不至，太后怒而止。 明年正月，更命宜中使軍中，約用臣禮。 宜中難之，太后涕泣曰：「苟存社稷，臣，非所較也。」 未幾，大元兵薄皋亭山，宜中宵遁，文武百官亦潛相引去。
That month Yuan forces took Changzhou. The empress dowager sent Lu Xiufu and others to sue for peace, but the enemy refused. Chen Yizhong then led the chief ministers in begging to move the capital. The empress dowager refused. Yizhong wept and pressed his plea until, with no alternative, she consented. They were to depart the next day, but Yizhong, in his haste, failed to present his memorial. The imperial carriage was already harnessed, the sun was setting, and Yizhong had not appeared. In anger the empress dowager called the move off. In the first month of the following year she again ordered Yizhong to the enemy camp to negotiate, on terms that treated the Yuan as a sovereign state. Yizhong balked. The empress dowager wept and said, "If the altars of state can be preserved, whether we stand as their subjects is not worth disputing." Before long Yuan forces closed on Gaoting Mountain. Yizhong fled by night, and civil and military officials quietly slipped away after one another.
131
二月辛丑，大軍駐錢塘，宋亡。 瀛國公與全后入朝，太后以疾留杭。 是年八月，至京師，降封壽眷郡夫人。 越七年終，年七十四，無子。
On the xinchou day of the second month the main Yuan army encamped at Qiantang, and the Song fell. The Duke of Ying and Empress Quan went to the Yuan court, while the empress dowager, citing illness, remained at Hangzhou. In the eighth month of that year she reached the Yuan capital and was demoted to Lady of Shoujuan. Seven years later she died at seventy-four, leaving no sons.
132
兄奕，宋時封郡王。 侄堂，兩浙鎮撫大使，尚榮郡公主； 暨、𡌴並節度使，端平初，頗干國政云。
Her elder brother Yi had been enfeoffed as a commandery prince under the Song. Her nephew Tang, Grand Pacification Commissioner of the Two Zhes, married the Princess of Rong; Ji and Mao both held military commissioner posts and, in the early Duanping era, were said to have meddled heavily in state affairs.
133
全皇后
Empress Quan
134
度宗全皇后，會稽人，理宗母慈憲夫人侄孫女也。 略涉書史，幼從父昭孫知岳州。 開慶初，秩滿歸，道潭州。 時大元兵自羅鬼入破全、衡、永、桂，圍潭州，人有見神人衛城者，已而潭獨不下。 逾年事平，至臨安。
Empress Quan of Emperor Duzong came from Kuaiji and was a grand-niece of Empress Dowager Cixian, Lizong's mother. She had some acquaintance with books and histories. As a girl she accompanied her father Zhaosun when he served as prefect of Yuezhou. At the opening of Kaiqing, when his term ended, they returned home by way of Tanzhou. Yuan forces had entered through Luogui, overrun Quan, Heng, Yong, and Gui, and laid siege to Tanzhou. Some reported seeing a divine being guard the walls, and in the end Tanzhou alone held out. More than a year later, when the fighting subsided, they reached Lin'an.
135
會忠王議納妃。 初，丁大全請選知臨安府顧嵓女，已致聘矣； 大全敗，嵓亦罷去。 台臣論嵓大全黨，宜別選名族以配太子。 臣僚遂言全氏侍其父昭孫，往返江湖，備嘗艱險； 其處貴富，必能盡警戒相成之道。 理宗以母慈憲故，乃詔后入宮，問曰：「爾父昭孫，昔在寶祐間沒于王事，每念之，令人可哀。」 后對曰：「妾父可念，淮、湖之民尤可念也。」 帝深異之，詔大臣曰：「全氏女言辭甚令，宜配塚嫡，以承祭祀。」
It happened that Prince Zhong was choosing a consort. Ding Daquan had first proposed the daughter of Gu Yan, prefect of Lin'an, and betrothal gifts had already been sent; but when Daquan fell, Gu Yan was dismissed and withdrew. Censorial officials argued that Gu Yan belonged to Daquan's faction and that another eminent family ought to be chosen for the heir apparent. Ministers then pointed out that the Quan girl, traveling with her father Zhaosun up and down the rivers and lakes, had known every sort of hardship; and that once raised to wealth and rank she would surely practice mutual vigilance and support as a consort should. Out of regard for his mother Cixian, Lizong summoned the Quan girl to court and said to her, "Your father Zhaosun died in the state's service during the Baoyou era. Whenever I think of it, my heart grieves." She replied, "Your Majesty's grief for my father is fitting—but the people of the Huai region and the lake districts are even more deserving of pity." The emperor was deeply impressed and told his ministers, "The Quan girl's words are admirable. She should be matched to the legitimate heir to carry on the ancestral sacrifices."
136
景定二年十一月，詔封永嘉郡夫人。 十二月，冊為皇太子妃。 弟永堅等補承信郎、直秘閣。
In the eleventh month of the second year of Jingding an edict enfeoffed her as Lady of Yongjia. In the twelfth month she was installed as the heir apparent's consort. Her younger brothers Yongjian and others were appointed Supplementary Gentleman and Direct Gentleman of the Secretariat.
137
度宗立，鹹淳三年正月，冊為皇后。 追贈三代，賜家廟、第宅。 弟清夫、庭輝等一十五人，各轉一官。 五年三月，后歸寧，推恩姻族五十六人，進一秩。 咸平郡夫人全氏三十二人，各特封有差。
When Duzong took the throne, she was made empress in the first month of 1267. Three generations of her ancestors received posthumous honors, and the court granted her clan a family temple and a mansion. Fifteen of her brothers, including Qingfu and Tinghui, were each promoted one step in rank. In the third month of 1269 she paid a visit to her parents' home, and fifty-six relatives by marriage were each raised one rank in office. Thirty-two women of the Quan clan received special enfeoffment as Ladies of Xianping Commandery, each at a different level.
138
后生子不育，次生瀛國公。 十年，度宗崩，瀛國公立，冊為皇太后。 宋亡，從瀛國公入朝於燕京。 后為尼正智寺而終。
Her first son died in infancy; her second son became Duke of Ying. In 1274 Duzong died, her son the Duke of Ying succeeded, and she was made empress dowager. After the fall of Song she accompanied the Duke of Ying to Yanjing to submit to the Yuan court. She took the tonsure at Zhengzhi Temple and ended her life there as a nun.
139
楊淑妃
Imperial Concubine Yang Shu
140
楊淑妃，初選入宮為美人。 咸淳三年，進封淑妃。 推恩親屬幼節等三十四人進秩有差。 生建國公昰。 宋亡，是走溫州，又走福州。 眾推為主，冊妃為太后； 封弟昺衛王。 昺，修容俞氏所生也。
Imperial Concubine Yang Shu first entered the palace through selection as a Beautiful Lady. In 1267 she was promoted to Imperial Concubine. Thirty-four of her relatives, including Youjie, received promotions at varying levels. She gave birth to Shi, later Duke of Jianguo. After the fall of Song he fled first to Wenzhou and then to Fuzhou. The loyalists proclaimed him emperor and made the consort empress dowager; and enfeoffed her younger son Bing as Prince of Wei. Bing was the son of Cultivated Lady Yu.
141
至元十四年，大軍圍昰於海上。 明年四月，昰卒，昺代立。 十六年春二月，昺投海死，妃聞之大慟，曰：「我艱關忍死者，正為趙氏祭祀尚有可望爾，今天命至此，夫復何言！」 遂赴海死。 其將張世傑葬之海濱。
In 1277 the Yuan armies cornered Shi on the open sea. He died the following spring, and Bing took his place as ruler. In the second month of 1279 Bing leaped into the sea and drowned. When she heard the news she wailed and said, "I endured every hardship and refused death only because the Zhao line still had a flicker of hope—now Heaven's mandate is ended. What more can I say!" She too threw herself into the sea and died. Her general Zhang Shijie buried her on the shore.